by Joe Jackson
“Huh,” Kari muttered, dumbstruck. When the mallasti girl put it like that, it was hard to come up with a sensible defense on cue.
“Think of how we reacted to the seterra-rir,” Sonja put in, though she didn’t elaborate too much, despite Uldriana’s curiosity.
Uldriana folded her arms across her chest as though a sudden chill had just gone through her. “My people are not demons, Karian Vanador: we were conquered by them! Pray you never see the face or form of a true demon, for if you do, it will likely be the last thing you see.”
“Uldriana, you can hardly expect Kari – or myself, for that matter – to take your word for it on this,” Danilynn said with a gesture that was half placating and half dismissive. The fures-rir priestess reclined in a wide, deep chair and got to work with a brush she’d taken from her pack. “You’ve been very open with us about your people, your homeland, the kings, and some of the politics between them, and we’re very grateful for that. But there are deeper questions you’ll have to answer to avoid making it seem like you’re just leading us on with enough information to satisfy our curiosity without actually telling us anything.”
Kari suppressed a smile; she didn’t want to aggravate Uldriana, or make the girl feel as though she was being ganged up on. Instead, Kari simply turned and nodded thankfully toward Danilynn for putting her own thoughts into such a concise and civil package. Kari wasn’t sure how long she would hang onto her civility in the face of Uldriana’s assertions; to suggest that her people even thought that the rir were demons was insulting, doubly so if one considered they were never the aggressors against the people of Mehr’Durillia. Unless…
The mallasti girl made a clear effort not to get defensive, and sighed lightly through her nose before she spoke. “What else would you have me tell you? As I said the night we met, my people are an open and forthright people if you ask us what you wish to know. Have I not been honest with you on everything? What more can I tell you that will lead you to trust me?”
“Tell me who the title Great Mother refers to,” Danilynn said. “And if you have any idea why a syrinthian priestess may have served her.” Kari punctuated the question by drawing out the pendant she had found among Bosimar’s things.
Uldriana’s reaction was immediate and undeniable: she put her hand to the end of her snout, her eyes wide, and she reached out tentatively toward the pendant before drawing her hand away. She cast her gaze down to the floor and folded her hands before her, almost as if she was praying. Her breathing was slightly unsteady; if Kari wasn’t mistaken, the girl was making an effort not to cry right then and there.
“Uldriana…?” Kari prompted softly, leaning forward in her seat.
“If I am to share this with you, then you must swear to me, before your deities, that you will not repeat this to anyone while you are here on Mehr’Durillia. The gravity of what I am about to tell you is such that the mere mention of it is enough to get one arrested and executed. This is no idle threat; I have seen it happen myself. If you wish me to speak of these things, then you must swear to me that you will not repeat any of it until you have left Mehr’Durillia, else it may cost us all our lives.”
Kari glanced around the room nervously. “Sonja, Danilynn, see if you can make sure none of those glyphs outside were for eavesdropping, please.”
Danilynn shook her head. “Quite the opposite,” she said. “Many of those glyphs we saw on the sides of the building were put there to prevent eavesdropping. Based on how nervous our mallasti guide is, I’m going to guess they’re there to prevent the Overking and his agents from spying on the people here constantly.”
Uldriana nodded appreciatively in recognition of the priestess’ acumen. “To an extent, you are correct,” she said. “The elestram mask their enchantments well, and the protection they provide is not absolute, else their function and prevalence would be too readily apparent.”
Kari once again held out the pendant that mixed elements of a hawk, snake, and hyena, all superimposed over a strange symbol, and handed it to Uldriana. The mallasti girl accepted it tentatively this time, and Kari gestured toward it while the mallasti rubbed her thumb across its surface. “Why don’t you start by telling us what that is,” the demonhunter suggested.
The mallasti girl rose to her feet and took off her robe. Kari wasn’t surprised; it was hot on the upper floor, and the girl had a fairly heavy coat of fur. Uldriana sat in the center of the floor cross-legged, and she looked around at Kari and her friends for a few minutes before she spoke. “I can only relate to you the traditions and stories of my people, as they are told around the evening fire, or by my forebears over supper,” she explained. “These stories have been passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, the only form of history we are able to keep that cannot be destroyed or altered by the Overking.”
Uldriana held up the pendant and something passed behind her eyes. “This is the symbol of the First Three, the Holy Siblings who formed the Great Circle. On the right is the hawk-like countenance of Huirelius, the Welcome Rain, Prince of the Skies, principal deity of the world of Hrastiria,” the girl recited from memory. “On the left is the great cobra-like face of Ashakku, the Eternal Sun, Lord of the Green, principal deity of the world of Irrathmor. And in the center is the mallasti goddess Be’shatha, the Lifegiver, Great Mother, creator of Mehr’Durillia – ‘her breath’ – and the mother of our peoples: mallasti, elestram, and erestram.”
Kari glanced to her right and saw that Danilynn had stopped brushing, transfixed on the mallasti girl in the wake of her words. Uldriana had paused for a moment, and Kari took the opportunity to sort through everything she’d heard. She remembered the dream of Sakkrass she’d had when in the castle of Lord Lajere; Sakkrass had been speaking to a hawk-man of some kind, and had turned into a hooded cobra just before Kari woke up. She had assumed it was a trick: some ploy by either Turillia or Sekassus – or both – to make her believe that Sakkrass was a fake, or an alter-ego of Sekassus. Now that she considered Uldriana’s words, Kari understood a chilling truth: Sakkrass had shown his true face to her, and she had turned away in terror. Now she wondered if she had offended him.
“Does Ashakku go by the name Sakkrass as well?” Kari asked.
“I have not heard that name before,” Uldriana answered. “Ashakku is the deity of the syrinthian people, though his worship has obviously been banned by King Sekassus and the Overking; they do not even speak of him, but there are still the remnants in our oral traditions.”
Kari quickly debated sharing her own secrets. “I had a dream of Sakkrass not so long ago, and in it he turned from a czarikk to a…a cobra-man of some kind. Maybe he was trying to show me and I just didn’t want to see.”
The mallasti girl looked confused. “Perhaps,” was all she could offer.
“Where is the Great Mother, or Bay-shah-tha?” Danilynn asked, sounding out the name of the mallasti deity.
Uldriana looked toward the floor again, took a deep breath, and let out a long sigh. “She is dead; slain by the Overking and his lieutenants: Baal, Koursturaux, Baphomet, and Abaddon. At that point in history, King Koursturaux was the Overking’s mate, though their relationship soured over the long millennia since they conquered this world. Those five, they are the Ancient Ones: the five most powerful of the kings, and the true demon kings. They killed Be’shatha, and her sibling deities retreated to fortify their worlds against invaders from the…” – she paused and titled her head, trying to avoid a chuckle as her eyes met Kari’s – “…underworld.”
Kari looked at her friends, and she puzzled out what Uldriana was saying. “So the Overking is a demon – a demon king, and he killed your goddess?” The mallasti girl nodded, subdued. “But there are others? Other gods that fight against the Overking? Ashakku and Whir-rell-ee-us?”
Uldriana shrugged. “How much they fight against him, we cannot say. Our traditions speak to them being siblings to Be’shatha, but any influence they once had here is gone. Now the Overking r
ules this world, and even mentioning these deities is punishable by death.”
“Who is the Overking, though?” Kari asked. “And what sort of demons does he actually have in his army? Are they succubi and incubi?”
“No,” the mallasti girl answered. She looked around nervously. “It is very dangerous to even speak the Overking’s name; it is considered an offense to address him by name, even when one puts Overking or Your Majesty or other such titles of respect before it. I suppose that with how much I have already told you, there will be little harm in committing one more crime; if any have been listening in on us, we will surely be killed anyway.”
Uldriana sighed. “His name is Asmodeus, as we know it,” she continued. “Whether this is his true name, or simply an assumed one, our traditions do not say. When the Great Mother fell, it was at the hands of Asmodeus and his lieutenants:”
Sonja and Danilynn were clearly just as floored as Kari by the revelations Uldriana had shared with them. Turning back to the mallasti girl, Kari asked, “And the demons?”
“My people rarely tell tales of them; they are terrifying to imagine, let alone to see with one’s own eyes. They are without true form or substance: black, shadowy masses that drain the very heat of life from around them. They are possessors, and at the Overking’s command, they sometimes take the bodies of my people and our kin to use in their war against the other gods.”
“Shadow demons?” Kari muttered. “I’ve seen…well, not seen, but I fought one when I was in Barcon. Katarina and Eli saw it; Sakkrass helped drive it away, but we didn’t kill it.”
Uldriana shook her head. “There is no need to add the word shadow to their name; those are demons. Those are true demons, the likes of which your Order is powerless to hunt.”
“Crap,” Kari blurted. “All this time we’ve been focusing on the serilis-rir and your people, and you’re not even the problem? No wonder I’ve had the feeling we’re flying blind.”
“You now know a great deal of the oral traditions of my people,” Uldriana said. “It is my hope that when you leave this world and arrive safely back home, you will take this information and use it. Use it, Karian, to protect your world and, if possible, to help Be’shatha’s siblings to protect theirs.”
Of course, Kari thought. That’s why Sakkrass has those scars, and showed me those scenes of battle against the…mallasti, elestram, and erestram. She looked up. “In my dream, Sakkrass showed me that his people fight yours; I think he is the same deity as Ashakku. Are your people used as infantry in the Overking’s army?” The mallasti girl nodded. Kari turned to her friends. “Damn. Do you two have any other questions?”
“Of course,” Danilynn said. “If we can get back to the pendant you hold for a minute, what is the symbol behind the masks? Does it hold some meaning?”
“It is the traditional symbol for life, and is synonymous with Be’shatha herself,” the mallasti girl explained. “It is unusual that a syrinthian priestess, let alone their high priestess, would bend knee to the Great Mother. It is even more unusual when you consider that Be’shatha is dead – or asleep, as my people would say. They say that a god never truly dies: their essence only goes into sleep until the faith of the people is strong enough to re-awaken them. Thus far, this has not happened for our goddess. What syrinthian priestess do you speak of when you say she served Be’shatha?”
“The mother of the girl we’re going to try to release,” Danilynn answered.
“Ah, now I understand,” Uldriana said. “So it is your hope that this girl, this priestess that King Sekassus holds prisoner, will tell you more of what I have already told you?”
“That’s our hope, yes,” Kari said. “Although with all due respect to your mother, I’m half-tempted to simply kidnap you, and take you back home with us.”
The mallasti’s eyes went wide, but then she let out a tense chuckle. “That might be safer than remaining here, after everything I have told you. What else can I share with you, or are you satisfied that I am not keeping things from you?”
“I don’t understand how Se’ceria ended up serving Be’shatha if, as you say, Be’shatha is your goddess and dead. Why wouldn’t she have served Ashakku?” Danilynn asked.
“I cannot say,” Uldriana answered. “Though our deities are considered siblings, it is most typical for our kinds to worship our own. I wish I could tell you more.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Kari said. “Take a rest. We can ask you more questions later, or you might find that you remember other things you need to tell us. In the meantime, why don’t you show Sonja some more about her arcane power?”
Uldriana nodded, and Sonja thanked Kari for thinking of her. Kari moved to sit beside Danilynn, and they slid their chairs closer together. “Does this all mean what I think it does?” Kari asked.
Danilynn beheld her curiously, but there was a lot going on in the priestess’ mind, Kari could tell. “You mean regarding you and the Temple?” she asked quietly. Kari nodded. “I’m thinking it probably does. If these demon kings can kill a god, then there’s no telling what it will take to stop them. Our gods are powerful, but even the greatest among them is dead now; if the Overking and his lieutenants can kill elder gods, our entire pantheon could be insufficient to stop them, as blasphemous as that sounds.”
“It doesn’t sound blasphemous, it sounds practical,” Kari said, putting her finger to her chin. “And if peoples’ suspicions about the Temple holding the power to make one a god are true, then the prospect of these ‘Ancient Ones’ getting their hands on that is terrifying.”
“But there is hope, if what Uldriana’s people think is true,” Danilynn offered. “If there’s a way to reawaken Be’shatha, then all together, when they know what to expect, the gods may be able to turn the tide back against the Overking.”
“And we’re about to try to snatch Sakkrass’ – or Ashakku’s – high priestess from the clutches of the kings,” Kari offered. She tapped a black claw on the arm of her chair absently. “Danilynn, do you suppose, if what Uldriana says is true, that it’s possible we could reawaken Gori Sensullu?”
The priestess’ blue eyes almost seemed to glow, so full of determination. “That was the first thing I thought,” she answered. “But if the strength of the peoples’ faith is the key, it’s hard to know just how to accomplish such a thing.”
“But it probably has to do with the Temple,” Kari said. “But I think this is something we’re better off waiting until we get home to go over in detail. Just don’t let me forget.”
“Believe me, I won’t,” Danilynn chuckled.
Kari and Danilynn took advantage of Sonja and Uldriana’s lesson to make use of the bath chamber, and to wash their armor and clothes. Kari briefly interrupted the arcanists’ lesson to ask about restocking food and supplies in the city, but Uldriana asked her companions to wait until she could go with them in the morning. With a short-term plan in place, Kari and Danilynn spent the evening practicing the infernal tongue, and Kari managed to make fairly considerable progress learning the basics.
Chapter XIV – Dancing Shadows
Kari expected she’d sleep well. The golden plains of Tess’Vorg cooled off at night, but not so much that it became chilly. It felt like early summer, but Kari wondered if it was like that year-round, or if Mehr’Durillia experienced seasons like her own world. The upper floor of the hostel was warmer, but with the windows open, the dormitory Kari shared with Uldriana stayed comfortable, the air fresh. The city was quiet at night; other than the soft sound of the wind past the windows, and the barely-noticeable drone of Uldriana breathing, the room was nearly silent.
Kari started to nod off, but the more her mind raced through the things Uldriana had told her, the harder she found it to cross the threshold into the land of dreams. The information the mallasti girl had shared so freely was invaluable, but a part of Kari wondered how much she could trust it. It had been enough of a shock to Kari and her Order to find that the serilis-rir were not demons; the Ord
er had been founded on hunting them, as until only recently they were called serilian demons. To now find that the underworld was not the underworld, and its demons were not demons, left Kari feeling adrift, helpless and clueless. If she and her fellow hunters had failed to recognize the true nature of their “enemies” for this long, Kari had to wonder how many other things they misunderstood.
Finding that King Koursturaux was not only a “true” demon king, but that she was also involved in the murder of this world’s creator, left Kari more fearful for being involved with her. If Kari ended up trapped in Koursturaux’ service, that would leave the entire Order exposed to the demon king’s machinations. If Koursturaux and her fellow demon kings had managed to kill a goddess at least as powerful as Gori Sensullu, how much of a chance did Kaelariel and the rest of his fellows stand against them? It was a terrifying thing for Kari to consider: if the demon kings could kill gods, what chance did any of her people stand?
The best chance she could think of was to play the demon kings against each other; after all, that was how the Overking apparently kept his subordinates in line. Kari wasn’t sure her deities, let alone her fellow hunters or even her brother-in-law Aeligos, were sharp enough to play the political games that would keep the demon kings fighting each other. As it stood, the demon kings were all in a subtle state of war with each other, but apparently that didn’t stop them from waging war on other gods and, to some extent, Citaria. It seemed they used their shadow demons – or just demons, if what Uldriana said was accurate – to fight their war on other worlds and their gods, but they used the mallasti, elestram, and other races of Mehr’Durillia to entertain themselves here and on Citaria.
It was a disheartening thing to consider. Kari and Danilynn had spoken at length, and Danilynn had reached one of the same conclusions as Kari. Several sources had mentioned that King Emanitar and King Koursturaux were once lovers; combined with the knowledge that Koursturaux had helped kill the mallasti deity, Kari could only conclude that Emanitar had betrayed his own deity. Everything Kari had heard regarding King Emanitar painted him as what she would almost call benevolent, but if he had aided in killing his own goddess for power, it could only mean that while he didn’t feel beholden to the Overking, he was really no better.