by Joe Jackson
Se’sasha stared at Kari for a long while before they drifted off to sleep, and once again Kari wished she could speak with the syrinthian girl. All in due time, she reminded herself. For the time being, she was simply happy that the girl was willing to trust them, and hadn’t either run off or tried to get them captured or killed. Kari was growing more and more confident that the girl would talk to them when they got her safely to Citaria. For the most part, it seemed a simple matter of having the right person speak to her in her own language.
Kari had a nightmare of Turillia staring at her through the windows of her room, but she rose and checked through the shutters, and found only a lifeless, moonlit town down below. In the morning, the group left town without any trouble or sightings of Turillia, stopping only to get Se’sasha a more proper travel garment while they could. Their travels continued uninterrupted for a couple more days. And then, Shefter informed them, before they had even left the confines of the pine forest, that they had successfully crossed the border into Tess’Vorg.
Home was that much closer, and Kari nearly felt like kissing the ground.
Chapter XVIII – Full Circle
Tess’Vorg offered no more trouble for the companions on the way back than it had when they crossed it the first time. They declined to go to Rulaj again and risk being delayed, either by King Emanitar or by Turillia, or whoever it was. Their nights were long and restful, devoid of the relentless pursuit that had dogged them for more nearly two weeks. Shefter kept their pace steady and straight, and they reached the border of Pataria and crossed it after less than a week. Moskarre was close to the border between Pataria and the Overking’s realm near a stream, so it was pretty easy for Kari to find again.
The companions ascended the hill, Kari as steadily as she could, given she was getting more and more sore every day. When they reached the top of the hill, she drew the attention of some of the mallasti people down below rather than just walking into their village uninvited. There was alarm at first, but when the mallasti saw that it was three rir women again, a couple of the warrior-guards came and escorted them into the village. Shefter and Se’sasha were given a fairly thorough once-over by the mallasti guards, but Shefter gave them assurances in the infernal tongue, and though they didn’t appreciate the language, they nodded to his words.
The mood in the village was somber, and Kari didn’t have any trouble understanding why: they clearly knew they would never see Uldriana again, and had probably hoped they’d never see Kari again, either. Despite the attempt of the guards to lead her and her friends to the elder’s tent, Kari instead made her way to the one belonging to Uldriana’s family. With the commotion spreading throughout the camp, it wasn’t long before some of Uldriana’s family came out to see what the fuss was about, and the girl’s mother balked when she beheld Kari.
Kari took the urn from Sonja and held it out to the mallasti woman, who took it after some hesitation. She opened it and looked within, then quickly closed it and handed it off to her mate while she put her clawed hand to her chest. After a few moments, she looked back up at Kari with fury in her eyes, but before she could spit on Kari again, the demonhunter reacted faster and slapped the mallasti woman hard across the snout. Kari held her ground as growls sounded all around her and Uldriana’s father got between his mate and the demonhunter.
“Kari, what are you doing?” Sonja asked incredulously.
“Tell her I’d like to kick her ass for letting us lead her daughter to her death,” Kari growled.
Sonja balked, but Danilynn stepped between Kari and the mallasti family, thinking to herself for a few moments before she began to speak. Kari was pretty sure the priestess wasn’t going to translate exactly what she said, but at her words, the mallasti’s expressions turned from anger and hostility to confusion, and they spoke rapidly back and forth with the fures-rir woman. Danilynn continued speaking with them, and she pointed at Kari a couple of times, then Sonja, and then to Se’sasha. Kari wasn’t sure exactly what Danilynn was saying, but based on the tears in Sonja’s eyes and the shock on the faces of the mallasti, Kari guessed the priestess was saying the right things.
Kari’s heart was pounding, and a light blue glow began to emanate from her chest. The mallasti backed away from her a couple of steps as Zalkar’s symbol appeared through Kari’s breastplate; they apparently knew what it was and what it meant. Kari had no idea what was making the symbol appear, but she touched her hand to it and sighed. “Love justice, but do mercy,” she said. “That’s what I live by. There’s no justice or mercy in leading a young girl to her death, not for any reason. If you’d told me that it was your daughter that was the price being paid, I would’ve told King Morduri to forget it, and found another way. Uldriana’s death is not my fault, but you’ve made me a party to it, and now I have to live with that.”
Danilynn’s mouth tightened into a line, but she started speaking rapidly in infernal after the briefest hesitation. Kari’s words seemed to confuse and surprise the mallasti even more, and they offered no words in return. “Tell her I’m sorry,” Kari said, her emotions finally getting the best of her and spilling down her cheeks. She had to make an effort not to double over as her stomach wrenched itself into a knot. “I never wanted this…I never would’ve let Uldriana come if I thought she was going to die. I’m a mother, too, and I’d never ask anyone to make that sacrifice.”
Kari waited while Danilynn translated, but she turned her head as she saw that the elder of the village was standing just a few paces away. He nodded respectfully, she assumed to her words, and Kari returned the gesture. Sonja turned away in tears, and Shefter put his hand to the larger woman’s shoulder. Se’sasha stood by, anxiously watching the proceedings. Kari wanted to be sure the mallasti knew she was sincere in what she said, and she turned back to Uldriana’s mother and saw the woman had hung her head, crying. Her mate comforted her as best he could.
“You returned to fulfill your promise?” the elder asked, and Kari nodded solemnly. The elder said something to Uldriana’s mother, and the hyena woman’s eyes opened and fixed, wide with surprise, on the demonhunter. Kari stepped forward and touched the side of the woman’s face tenderly. There was a connection when their eyes met, mother to mother, and to the surprise of every person standing there – Kari not the least of them – the two embraced.
Kari held Uldriana’s mother tightly, extending with the courtesy the heartfelt condolences she’d expressed to every mate, parent, sibling, and child of every demonhunter who’d ever been killed in the line of duty. Kari understood she walked a dangerous road surrounded by death, and that she would be losing friends and acquaintances for as long as she did so, but now she also understood that comforting the survivors was a sacred duty that came with it. Uldriana and her people may have been her enemies – although that was something Kari was really wondering about now – but if Kari ever wanted to bring them over to the cause of the pantheons, then even a small gesture like this would help.
The mallasti woman drew away at last and spoke quietly and respectfully to Kari, though still in her own language. The village elder nodded to the woman’s words and then translated, “She thanks you for honoring your promise and her daughter’s remains. She only hopes that the sacrifice was worth it to our king.”
Kari turned and looked into Se’sasha’s eyes. “That’s going to depend on you,” she said, though neither the mallasti nor the syrinthian girl understood. Kari turned back to the elder then, and added, “Your king demanded a service from me, and he said it’ll be something that benefits you, not just him. I’m going to hold him to that, and I promise you, when he tells me how I can repay you for this, I’ll do so – willingly, and gladly.”
The village elder bowed his head, but said nothing. The demonhunter said, “Farewell to you and your people. We won’t impose on you by staying here; you’re going to need time to heal, and we need to get home before anyone else comes looking for us. I know this was an awful sacrifice for your people to make, and
that you only did it because the king ordered you to, but thank you all the same.”
The elder nodded solemnly. “We must put our trust that the king did this for a good reason, whether we can see that now or not,” he said. “You have acted with honor and integrity, and we are appreciative of that, despite our inability to show it at this time. Go quickly now, hunter, and return to the safety of your own home, before any misfortune befalls you as well.”
Kari started to lead her friends toward Anthraxis, but Sonja approached Uldriana’s mother. Kari expected her sister-in-law to hug the girl’s mother as well, but instead, Sonja made a casual gesture and an image appeared, shimmering in the air. It was a perfect likeness of Uldriana, her white coat shining under the sun. She smiled, and her parents held tight to each other as they shared one last ethereal moment with their daughter. Sonja sniffled and walked away without a word.
Kari hugged her sister-in-law, and despite the slight satisfaction they had gotten from bringing Uldriana home, the companions walked toward Anthraxis in silence. They passed through the Overking’s lands easily over the course of a day and a half. Finally they approached the wall that ringed the city, stymieing any attempts by its residents to expand and reclaim the burned-out land around it. Kari glanced at Se’sasha now and then, but the syrinthian priestess didn’t seem to have any trepidation where entering the city was concerned. She didn’t look eager to enter its confines, but at the same time, she didn’t act as though she was afraid of what might happen within its walls. Kari wondered if that was confidence or ignorance: the girl had grown up in a dungeon for most of her life, after all. It was possible she didn’t know better.
“So I had meant to ask, the name Anthraxis…is it the obvious reference it seems to be?” Kari asked, breaking the silence among the companions. “I mean, is it named after anthrax?”
Danilynn shook her head. “Anthraxis is a rather specific term in the infernal tongue; it’s not exactly straightforward to translate to ours.”
“Any idea?” Kari asked Shefter, but the elven ranger shrugged his answer.
“Ground zero,” Sonja said, drawing interested stares from the others. Kari and Danilynn looked to the scarlet-haired woman as well; Sonja had hardly spoken since they’d left Moskarre. What she said put everything into the proper context, though, and Kari was left with little doubt why the Overking’s realm and city were where they were, or looked the way they looked. This had been where his conquest of Mehr’Durillia had begun.
“So Tess’Vorg was the birthplace, and this was the beginning of the end,” Kari said more to herself than anyone else, but Danilynn and Sonja both nodded.
“Indeed, though this is a subject best reserved for when we’re far from this place,” Sonja said, and there were no arguments raised.
They had hardly taken ten steps into the city before a cloaked figure emerged from a side street in the mortal quarter. Those golden, slit-pupiled eyes fixed on Kari, and the half-succubus swept her cloak back to show the hilts of her blades, but she made no actual threatening move toward Kari or her friends. Turillia simply stared at Kari with an unblinking gaze, and it was all Kari could do to not draw her own swords then and there.
“Ignore her; she can’t touch us here,” Danilynn said, gently prodding Kari with a hand to the shoulder.
The others passed them by, and once her friends were all on the other side of her from the half-succubus, Kari began walking toward the Overking’s palace again. They made it halfway to the obsidian tower before Eliza found them. She gestured for them to follow her wordlessly, and the companions quickened their pace as they felt their escape looming so close now. Kari looked over her shoulder a couple of times, but there was no indication Turillia was following. Kari checked the skies to see if the woman had taken wing, but she was nowhere to be seen.
Eliza brought them to a hotel room in the northeast quarter, and ushered everyone inside quickly. Kari expected to find Aeligos and Eli waiting there for them, but there was no sign of the boys. “I had to take your companions home not long after you left the city,” Eliza answered before anyone could ask. “They were drawing a lot of attention from the Overking’s servants – through no fault of their own, I might add. Now, there’s no time to waste. Gather in a circle, join hands, and let’s get you lot home.”
There was no argument or hesitation from anyone, even Se’sasha, who didn’t understand their words, but understood their mannerisms well enough. They joined hands, and when Eliza completed the circle, she tore a hole in the fabric of reality and brought the companions from one world to the other in the span of a heartbeat. In just a moment, the nightmare had come to its close, dispelled by the light of day that graced them as they landed upon the safety of Citaria.
Never before had Kari been so glad to smell the dank scent of a city mixed with the tang of sea salt. Even DarkWind’s lower east side, the city’s rougher part, was like the pristine grounds of a grand temple, compared to where she and her friends had just come from. Their senses were thrown into disarray: the sun was still hanging in the sky at mid-afternoon height, whereas they had left under twilight in Anthraxis. It was a welcome contrast to where they’d come from, though, and Kari nearly fell to her knees in thankful relief.
Several townspeople scattered when the group landed in the middle of the street, and the presence of a half-succubus only exacerbated the issue. City watch responded quickly to the growing commotion, but when they saw Kari among the arrivals, they took the situation under control and worked to calm the townspeople. Kari pulled out her dog tags despite the fact that the guards already recognized her, and she looked around cautiously to see if anyone made a move toward either Se’sasha or Eliza. The townsfolk kept their distance, and many simply went back to their business, so Kari turned to Eliza.
“I must go,” Eliza said. “The Overking’s eyes will settle upon me, so if I am away from you, then your escape might avoid his notice for a while. We have no time for lengthy farewells; take care of yourselves. We will speak again in due time.”
Kari waved a simple farewell and her friends sputtered quick thank yous, and then the half-succubus sorceress was gone in a flash with a short pop. Only Se’sasha had failed to say something or at least acknowledge Eliza’s help, but that was likely just the language issue. Kari turned to the syrinthian priestess. Se’sasha had her face tilted up toward the sun, drinking in its warmth with her eyes closed. They had walked under the sun of Mehr’Durillia for many days and then the bloated, angry sun of the Overking’s realm for a couple more, yet Se’sasha had never reacted to the sun’s warmth in this way. And then what happened made Kari’s jaw drop.
Se’sasha’s finely scaled skin, whitish-tan with a green undertone, began to glow. She let her robe fall to the creases of her elbows, much to Kari’s surprise, but Se’sasha still wore the prison garment as a slip underneath. With more of her flesh bared, tattoos began to show where they hadn’t been before: tribal designs and markings depicting the sun on her arms, shoulders, and even around her navel, glowing so that they showed through the slip. After basking in the warmth of the sun and the glow of her own scales for a couple of minutes, Se’sasha began to speak quietly in the syrinthian tongue.
Kari wanted to get Se’sasha off the streets quickly, but she was intrigued. “What are you doing?” she asked, though she neither expected nor received an answer.
Danilynn spoke up. “She’s praying,” she said, and motioned for everyone to be patient. Kari wasn’t sure how her fures-rir friend knew that, since Se’sasha was speaking in syrinthian, but she figured one priestess would know another, regardless of language barriers.
Finally, Se’sasha opened her eyes and shrugged her robe back onto her shoulders. She looked at Kari, gestured to the side, and said what had to be “lead on” in syrinthian.
The group was still a bit of a spectacle in the middle of the street, but they fell into step with Kari as she started toward home. She would send word to the campus once they were at home,
but she wanted to get Se’sasha settled in, and let her family know that they were all alive and well. Along the way, they were approached from time to time by some of the townsfolk, but though Kari was suspicious, she realized that they were coming to the priestess to be healed. Se’sasha was laying her hands upon them and speaking in the syrinthian tongue, but the people were thanking her and walking away overjoyed.
Kari was left to wonder why these people didn’t simply go to Tigron’s temple, or to see her mate at Kaelariel’s temple if they needed healing. That they would avoid their own peoples’ priests for healing but go looking for it from a syrinthian seemed very odd. In a way, she found it inspiring that the people might be willing to trust a syrinthian priestess; was it the golden aura the woman was giving off? Or did it have something to do with the prayer and the power of whoever might have answered it, drawing converts to the girl’s side?
Kari decided not to get ahead of herself. Se’sasha was healing people, and there wasn’t any good reason for Kari to be suspicious of that. Instead, she simply concentrated on keeping them all moving toward home, and protecting Se’sasha whenever the priestess stopped to heal someone. It seemed every time she healed someone, it took some of the sheen off of her aura, so that by the time they reached Kyrie’s home, it had dissipated completely.
Kyrie was in the garden pulling up weeds when the group arrived at the house. Grakin and Aeligos were sitting side by side in rocking chairs on the porch. Little Gray was playing on the lawn by his grandmother, and he was the first to look up and exclaim Mama! Aeligos and Grakin both started at that declaration, and they came down off the porch with surprising speed, especially for Grakin. Kyrie straightened up and turned to the new arrivals, and she only just got her wits about her and took off her gardening gloves before putting her hands to her snout.