Serpents Rising (Eve of Redemption Book 3)

by Joe Jackson

  Kari ignored his taunting remarks and glanced over her shoulder again at the syrinthian priestess. “How is he?” she asked quickly, but she turned back to watch the Demon Prince before Se’sasha could answer.

  “He lives, but not for much longer,” she said. “Danilynn, I require your aid! It would also help to have Grakin up here with us.”

  Damnit, Kari thought. She didn’t want Taesenus to know her mate and son were in the woods, should the worst come to pass. She supposed it had to be so, though, if they wanted any chance of saving Typhonix’ life. Kari called out for Grakin, making sure to tell him that they needed him and that she didn’t just yell for him in terror. Kari gestured toward Typhonix with her head, and Danilynn slowly circled around Taesenus so she could go lend Se’sasha her aid. To Kari’s right, Aeligos had maneuvered around to Eli, and was trying to remove the half-corlyps’ breastplate to help tend to his wound.

  Kari spun her swords quickly in her hands. She was pregnant, sore, achy, and probably not in the best shape for fighting, but she was standing face to face with the Demon Prince once again with no one to help her. She wasn’t sure she could defeat him again, but the blue glow of Zalkar’s symbol made her think otherwise. She uttered a silent prayer to both him and Sakkrass, and asked them to put their spirits on her in this moment of desperation. In the back of her mind, she thought that might be her saving grace: she had people and deities who cared about her, whereas the Demon Prince had only hatred to keep him going.

  Taesenus chuckled. “Learn to guard your thoughts better, Karian,” he said. “The Lord of Destruction has granted me more power than either of your pathetic gods ever could or would. If you think to put that to the test, you may attack me any time at your leisure.”

  Still an arrogant bastard, Kari thought. Worse than that, he had apparently learned a few things from Abaddon, if his words were to be believed. Where the younger Taesenus that Kari had fought during the Apocalypse was a great fighter, he was reckless and had a terrible temper, both of which Kari had been able to use against him. The man who stood before her now used those things as his weapons instead of letting them be his weaknesses; he was baiting Kari to make the same mistakes he had years before. Kari didn’t smile overtly, but deep down inside, she was glad to see he still didn’t understand who he was fighting.

  Kari knew her enemy well, most specifically his love of decapitating his foes in battle, and she was mindful of the fact that her helmet was, as usual, tucked away in her pack. Just as when she fought Turillia in Barcon, she couldn’t help but think that oversight was going to get her killed one day. Once again, she prayed that today wouldn’t be that day. She raised her scimitars before her and considered how best to initiate their fight. Taesenus apparently wasn’t going to be goaded into attacking her, meaning Kari’s defensive, counterattacking style would be harder to utilize.

  Taesenus began twirling his blades, acting bored, but as Kari beheld him holding both swords, a disturbing thought crossed her mind. Amastri – and thereby Koursturaux – had known Kari would be passing through this valley with Taesenus’ second sword. There was no way that his being here was coincidence, then: Koursturaux had to have betrayed Kari. Typhonix and Eli were both gravely wounded, and the Demon Prince had gotten his second prized vorpal sword back, all because Kari had gotten wrapped up with the demon king. His claims that he learned from Abaddon seemed a ploy: he had to be working for Koursturaux.

  Kari began circling the Demon Prince, slowly closing the distance between them as she moved around him. He seemed hesitant to strike first, and this allowed Kari to get closer to him than any swordsman worth their salt would be comfortable with. Taesenus was wary about being pinned between Kari and any of the others, most notably Sonja, but he gave ground to her as he waited for her to strike first. Kari didn’t oblige him, though: she was trying to buy her friends time to stabilize Typhonix and Eli. The longer she could hold Taesenus at bay, the better her chances were of getting more help again.

  Finally, the Demon Prince grew tired of waiting. He turned as if to move at Sonja, but as soon as Kari started to intercept, he whirled back on her. Kari had expected such a ploy after having her snout nearly cloven in two by Turillia; she caught his initial attacks easily. He had the advantage of reach with his longer blades, but Kari had already worked inside his range to frustrate that. Taesenus’ face contorted into a snarl when he realized she’d duped him, but he didn’t fly into a rage. His attacks came short and tight, utilizing thrusts to try to reestablish distance and swings to keep Kari moving to her left, into his more powerful right-hand arc.

  Kari accepted a harmless thrust that glanced off the paluric armor of her belly to move in even closer to the Demon Prince. She turned her left scimitar over the wrong way and cut in a backwards motion, trying to use the sharpened backside to hook under his incomplete armor and go for the arteries in his thigh. Taesenus barely avoided the strike, much like when Kari used it on Turillia, but she did catch enough flesh to tear the skin and bring forth a stream of blood. In typical fashion, the Demon Prince retaliated by swinging for her neck.

  His error was in not reestablishing distance first, which was what Kari had counted on. She stepped in instead of back, turned to her right, and drove her knee into his armored groin. The paluric armor wouldn’t absorb much of the blow, she knew, and getting hit in the crotch was painful whether you had padding there or not. He let forth a grunt and flashed his teeth in a snarl, but he had to accept her advantage and hop back two paces to put distance between them. Kari used that time to hold her bloodied left sword up by her face and smile at him around it.

  Taesenus smiled back, and Kari began to react before he even put his thoughts into motion. He dashed to his right to strike a coup de grace on Aeligos, who was tending to Eli. Kari flapped her wings hard but crouched, and the sudden sound made Taesenus stop and change direction, to come up facing her in a ready position. She wasted no more time playing: if he was threatening further harm to her friends, Kari knew she had to duel him and get it over with as quickly as possible. She gestured briefly for Sonja to go help the priests tend to Typhonix.

  Kari skulked in toward Taesenus and feinted, but this time he didn’t back away. He swung at her hard, but his second sword began to move sinuously in the wake of the first strike, preparing for a second and then probably more after it. Kari met each of his attacks but didn’t bother to try to riposte: she simply parried and worked to push his swings lower and lower, away from his favorite target. He played along, but Kari could tell he was waiting for an opportune moment to strike. She drove one of his blades wide and then left herself open on that side, and just as Turillia had, Taesenus took the bait.

  Kari kicked the Demon Prince hard in the jaw, and he staggered to the side, black blood dripping from his mouth as though he’d bitten through his tongue. She followed him and stabbed hard with her left blade, and she brought her right up underneath it to try to cut off his hand if he parried predictably. Her sword glanced off the armor on his hip, but it slid down enough to cut into the unprotected side of his leg, forcing him to stumble further along. Kari followed him by sidestepping, keeping him in front of her instead of following in his wake.

  Taesenus got his footing and drove both swords at her in a deceptively quick double thrust. Kari drove his swords apart, but he beat her to the attack and kicked her hard in her armored belly. Kari screamed out and staggered back. The kick brought tears to her eyes, and she gritted her teeth in a grimace of pain, backing away with her swords at the ready. Sonja rose just long enough to swing her massive decapitator at Taesenus, forcing him to his right, which bought Kari enough time to fight through the pain. More than the pain, though, she was worried about the damage it might’ve done to her baby.

  The Demon Prince stalked to the side away from Sonja, but he kept his vicious scowl firmly upon Kari. “Oh, are you carrying a little one? How nice to know I’ll kill two of you with one stroke,” he spat.

  Grakin reached the top
of the temple with Little Gray in his arms, and his eyes widened when he saw the scene before him. He glanced at Typhonix, and there was no doubt he knew where his attention was needed, but he fixed a helpless stare on Kari. She was fighting, while pregnant, and worse than that, she was fighting alone. Kari nodded her head toward Ty, and Taesenus snickered when he saw the concern on Grakin’s face.

  “Perhaps I should kill him and your boy before I kill you,” the Demon Prince mused.

  He shut up abruptly when he was struck from behind by Eli’s hammer. The half-corlyps nearly laid the Demon Prince flat with a bone-crushing hit to the back, but Eli doubled over in pain as soon as he’d swung. Taesenus stumbled forward and started to turn to strike back at Eli, but Kari slipped in sinuously and swung back, up, and outward with her right scimitar and sliced neatly under Taesenus’ jaw. Blood flew free and then began to spurt from the wound, and Kari knew she’d caught him in the artery.

  Kari moved to finish the job, but the Demon Prince hopped up on the altar and touched his neck briefly. His blood spattered on the altar’s surface as it spurted free a few times, but after only moments, it stopped, and he rolled his head to the side as though stretching his neck. Kari began to move toward the altar to attack, but she stopped and swiveled her head when a deep humming sound erupted from behind her. She kept her swords up before her to ward off any advance by the Demon Prince, but turned her eyes quickly to the portal behind her.

  Where only emptiness had stood in the center of the circle before, now a shimmering field of power rippled the air. Kari swore under her breath and moved over beside the portal defensively; she had no idea if anything would come through. Danilynn was watching the Demon Prince warily, one hand on her axe while she kept the other feeding healing energy to Typhonix. Sonja, too, still had Ty’s axe gripped firmly, waiting for any sign or gesture that she should join in the battle. Kari kept her focus primarily on the portal; everyone else seemed to be fine without her attention at that moment.

  “So, it does still work,” Taesenus said. “Yes, my lord will find this most interesting. In the meantime, I would suggest you see to your little Temple, because we’ll be coming for it soon enough, Vanador.”

  Kari tried to block him from making his way to the portal, but she was suddenly wary of being pinned between them. If something came through the portal, she’d be flanked and at risk of being killed. Kari glared at him as he walked warily past her, mindful of the fact that he had already survived being clubbed in the back and slashed across the arteries in his throat. If those attacks hadn’t managed to kill him, and Sonja’s magic was of no use, Kari thought that perhaps a stalemate was the best outcome she could hope for at this moment.

  She let him make his way to the portal, but he stopped before passing through the liquid-shimmering field of power. He turned that baleful red gaze upon Kari, and the black teeth showed again in that terrible grin. “Enjoy your miscarriage, bitch,” he spat. “The next time we cross paths, you will not have so many friends with you.”

  Taesenus stepped through the portal, and Kari dashed forward and slashed through the rippling field with one of her blades. It came back through streaked with fresh black blood, but she backed away. Taesenus, on the other side, could alert other demons –or Mehr’Durillians, whatever the case may be – that the portal was open.

  “How do we shut this down?” Kari barked, though she wasn’t sure she’d even get an answer: everyone else was rather busy.

  “Sonja, use fire to burn off the blood on the altar!” Danilynn said. “The portal will only stay open as long as some remnant of the sacrifice remains on the altar.”

  “No, wait,” Se’sasha said, jumping to her feet. She dashed over before the portal and her eyes searched the inscription around its outer edge. She began to speak quietly in the sibilant language of her people, what sounded like a prayer to Ashakku-Sakkrass. She opened her robe and let it fall to the ground, revealing her many sun-themed tattoos, and then a radiant light exploded from her in a fantastic corona that enveloped the portal.

  Kari dashed away from the artifact when she heard a cracking sound, and she went to check on Eli and Aeligos. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the portal shatter under the assault of light from the syrinthian priestess, and soon it collapsed. It didn’t just collapse in a typical sense, though: it collapsed in on itself, the stonework of the portal getting sucked through to wherever Taesenus had gone. When it was gone, Se’sasha hardly even paused before she gathered up her robe, re-donned it, and then ran back over to Typhonix.

  Kari was almost afraid to go over there. She had a sinking feeling in her gut, a presence of mind that understood if three priests were tending to him even still, then there was little hope. She crouched beside Eli, who was still doubled over in pain. When she touched his shoulder, he raised his head and tried to cover up the grimace of pain to smile. He’d told her before that his kind, half-corlypsi, were made to be able to survive heavy trauma, and the wound through his gut that must have surely hit his liver left her with little doubt that was true. He may have gotten the worst of the fights he was in while helping Kari, but he always got back on his feet – something not everyone could say.

  Aeligos’ injury seemed fairly superficial up close: a nasty laceration on the back of the leg that didn’t seem to have gotten any tendons or ligaments. He could walk gingerly, and the bleeding had all but stopped by the time the fight was over and they had a chance to breathe. Kari laid a hand on both Aeligos and Eli and sent out what healing energy she could. It wasn’t much, but it would start the healing process for Eli, and probably finish it for Aeligos. Once she was spent, she patted their shoulders, and made her way over to Ty.

  When Kari got close enough to Ty, she knew the situation was as dire as she’d thought. The priests had him on his belly, and Kari could see that however Taesenus had hit him, he’d cut into Ty’s neck and down his spine. Bone showed through the lacerated flesh in several spots down his spine, and only the shallow rise and fall of his ribs while the priests worked gave Kari any sense of hope. Ty was a fighter, and had survived quite a bit of punishment in their ordeal on Tsalbrin, but this was something Kari wasn’t sure was fixable. She was simply glad Grakin was keeping Little Gray behind him so the boy couldn’t see how badly his uncle was hurt.

  Sonja looked up at Kari, and the demonhunter realized she wasn’t the only one feeling hopeless. Sonja got to her feet and strode to where the portal had stood, clenching her fists, and Kari realized what she must be thinking. Kari picked up Little Gray, approached Sonja, and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t do it,” Kari said, drawing Sonja’ gaze to meet her own. She hoped the sight of Little Gray sitting worried in his mother’s arms might snap Sonja back to thinking clearly. “We need to concentrate on your brother and getting everyone home safely. Taesenus is gone; leave it be for now.”

  “Kari, I...,” Sonja started, and then she simply began to cry. “Oh, gods.”

  Kari wrapped her sister-in-law in a tight hug. “He’s a fighter,” Kari said. “He’s a fighter, and he needs you to be, too. Hang in there, sis.”

  Sonja got herself composed and then went over to check on Aeligos and Eli. Kari returned to Typhonix’ side and saw that much of the deeper damage had been healed. Grakin was the most experienced healer of the priests, and with his direction, Danilynn and Se’sasha were able to apply their own abilities much more efficiently. Se’sasha seemed to be a natural healer in much the same way Grakin was, and though Danilynn was primary a battle-cleric, she was helping as much as she could. Ty didn’t appear to be bleeding anymore, and Kari could no longer see bone, but he wasn’t conscious, and there was still a lot of damage to the flesh.

  “Eli could use some help once Ty’s out of danger,” Kari said.

  Danilynn looked across the way at the half-corlyps and scoffed. “That’s nothing,” she said. “You should’ve seen what he looked like after we fought the erestram. I’ll get to him soon, but he’s not in any danger, I can tell y
ou for sure.”

  Kari nearly laughed at that, but she was too busy chewing on her lower lip while she watched the priests work, Taesenus’ parting words ringing in her mind. It was interesting for her to see three priests of different races and different deities – heck, from different worlds – all working together in common purpose. Ty was very lucky to have such good friends, Kari realized, because if there had only been either Se’sasha or Danilynn there and he suffered such trauma, there’d likely be little they could do. Kari knew just from her first glance that her own healing power would’ve been near-useless in the face of such damage.

  Grakin grunted deep in his throat, and Kari realized he was vastly overextending himself. Before she could even say something, though, Se’sasha took one hand off of Typhonix and laid it on Grakin’s shoulder. “That is enough,” she said. “He is stable; that will have to do for now. It will do none of us any good to injure or deplete ourselves trying to complete an impossible task. For now, he will have to rest, and we can tend to him further when we have done so as well.”

  “Yes. Yes, you are right,” Grakin said, but he put a hand over his face in exasperation. Se’sasha patted the side of his face and kissed his temple, then she rose to her feet and moved over toward Eli. Danilynn followed with her, and Kari went and sat beside Grakin. He looked at her after shaking his head, and his gaze softened as it passed over their son.

  “What happened to uncle Ty?” their son asked in the rir tongue.

  Kari nearly burst into tears, but she bit down the sob that preceded it and took a deep breath in behind it. “He got hurt, but he’s going to be okay,” Kari said softly. “He just needs some sleep, and he’ll be much better in the morning.”

  “You okay, mama?”

  Kari pulled her son in tight so he wouldn’t see her cry. Taesenus had hit her hard in the belly, but she was pretty sure the armor and padded clothing had shielded her enough. “Mama’s okay,” Kari lied, and Grakin wrapped them both in his embrace as well.