Demonkin

by T. Eric Bakutis

  Aryn pulled back his hood, revealing his charred, demonic visage. Charrod gasped and covered his mouth. He turned very pale.

  “Thank you for speaking with me.” Aryn would ask his most dangerous questions while Charrod reeled. “How did you survive last night's attack?”

  “Beg pardon?” Charrod blinked rapidly.

  “The man who entered this palace last night killed two trained legionnaires. He even killed the royal adept. Why did he not kill you?”

  “I hid behind a wall!” Charrod scowled and hunched his shoulders. He had just decided Aryn was suggesting he lied.

  “If you were hiding, how did you see anything?”

  “I heard singing,” Charrod said, “low and haunting. When I peeked around the wall, I saw Xander Honuron. He walked right into the dark.”

  “How did you know it was Xander? Have you met him before?”

  Charrod frowned. “Well, no—”

  “How did you identify him?”

  “I described him,” Charrod said, standing stiff. “Captain Traeger identified him, based on my description.”

  “Is this true, captain?” Aryn glanced at Traeger. “You identified Xander, rather than Charrod? Could another man resemble Xander?”

  Traeger shifted his weight. “I suppose so.”

  “Now hold on a moment!” Charrod crossed his arms. “I watched you ride into this courtyard, young man, and I saw the gagged man you escorted into our palace. That man is the man I saw last night.”

  How convenient. “What about Kara? Did you see her too?”

  “Yes! She wore a dark cloak, but she had Kara's bearing. I’ve often seen the royal apprentice in court, and when she looked in my direction, I caught a glint of orange eyes. No one else I know has such striking eyes.”

  “But Kara didn’t see you, and you never saw her or the man with her kill anyone. You simply saw a woman you thought might be Kara with a man you thought resembled Xander, walking in low light.”

  “Don't be dense, boy!” Charrod glared. “I wouldn’t make claims of murder and treason lightly! I know what I saw.”

  “Could you have been dreaming, councilman? Confused?”

  “After Xander closed the wall, I rushed up the hallway from which he'd come! I found those poor guards.” Charrod stomped one booted foot. “The hall was empty. Who else but Xander could have murdered them?”

  “And Adept Anylus? Did you see Xander kill Anylus?”

  “Someone slit his throat, in his own chambers! Who else but a man who could sing himself through walls could do that?”

  “Yet this murderer did not kill the legionnaires by Anylus's door. He left those legionnaires alive.” More holes. “Why kill the men by Kara's cell and not kill those by Anylus? If Xander Honuron can sing through walls, as you claim, why kill anyone at all? He could enter Kara’s cell and lead her out without any one of you being the wiser. Without harming anyone.”

  “How should I know the thinking of a criminal?” Charrod poked Aryn's chest and loomed over him. “You question my honor, third-son? The king’s own treasurer? Do you have any idea what I can do to you?”

  Aryn pushed the finger off. “All I'm saying is—”

  “All you are,” and Charrod pushed him again, “is some crippled brat from Locke. You’ve involved yourself in a matter that is none of your concern and now you’re accusing me of lying to my own king!”

  “These aren't accusations, councilman.” Aryn did not push back because he knew he was winning. “Your testimony simply does not make sense.”

  Charrod threw up his hands and stared at Captain Traeger. “How much more of this must I listen too?”

  This was where everything must come together. Charrod's testimony was obviously flawed. Aryn just had to hope Traeger would see that.

  “Captain Traeger,” Aryn said, “we’ve raised a number of questions about your witness testimony today. Do you honestly believe a man as powerful as Xander would have any need to murder legionnaires? If he did take Kara, why meet me on the street this morning? Why risk capture?”

  “This is preposterous!” Charrod shouted. “Dare you entertain this fool?”

  Traeger straightened. “You've both made good points.” He rubbed one dark-rimmed eye with a knuckle. “Perhaps I did jump to conclusions.”

  “I saw Xander Honuron do this! I swear it!”

  “Be that as it may,” Traeger said, “our royal adept is dead, Kara is missing, and the only person who wanted that is now in our custody.” Traeger shook his head. “We cannot risk freeing Xander Honuron. Not yet. Not until we know absolutely everything about what happened.”

  Aryn glanced at Charrod. The man wore a self-satisfied smirk Aryn wanted to burn right off his face. He had lied just well enough.

  “Well, boy?” Charrod asked. “Satisfied?”

  Charrod's testimony would not stand at a public trial, but that trial would take weeks. Kara had days. All Charrod had to do was keep Xander here until whatever his conspirators planned came to fruition. Since those conspirators must know that, Aryn knew it was coming soon.

  “Counsel,” Traeger said, “any other questions?”

  “Not at the moment.” Why would Charrod frame Xander? Anylus would not instigate a plot that got him killed, so were Charrod and Anylus working against each other? Had someone paid Charrod off? That was where Aryn would start, with the treasurer's finances. If Tania could get them.

  “We're done here,” Aryn said. “Let's go.”

  Traeger opened the door. “I'll take you back to the king.”

  Tania stood outside the door, staring right at Councilman Charrod.

  “Tania!” Traeger shouted. “How dare—“

  She scribed two glowing blood glyphs. “Move!”

  Aryn dived into Captain Traeger as the floor behind them exploded. He knocked Traeger through the door as a sawblade shriek rose behind them. Aryn knew that horrifying sound. He knew it all too well.

  Councilman Charrod was one of the Mavoureen.

  Aryn rolled off Traeger and unslung his quarterstaff. “Call your soldiers, captain! You’ve got a demon problem!”

  A twisted body writhed now inside Councilman Charrod's skin, wriggling into the world like a bug from rotting fruit. It uncurled like a roller beetle. It could have been human save for its ludicrously thin body, spindly horns, and oily black skin.

  “Tania?” Aryn shouted.

  “Hold it off!” She scribed new blood glyphs on the air.

  Aryn charged the doppelganger. The demon screeched and lunged. Aryn's world slowed as he twisted, as poisonous sharpened fingernails slipped by his cheek. He felt air stirring with their passage.

  He swung his staff down and around, taking the demon’s ankles out from under it. The demon hissed as it landed, bounding right off the floor and springing toward him. Aryn slammed the end of his staff into its drool-stained teeth. The Mavoureen smacked hard into the floor.

  “Get out of there!” Tania shouted.

  Aryn spun and ran for the door. Traeger threw it shut after Aryn dived through, and then the door bucked hard enough to knock dust from its hinges. Traeger braced the door with outstretched arms, teeth bared.

  Aryn breathed a bit easier now — it was just a doppelganger in there, not Malkavet himself — and then he wondered when he had started regarding demon-spawned monstrosities as the acceptable evil.

  The locked door splintered as demon claws broke through. One swiped at Traeger as he ducked aside, barely avoiding it.

  “Watch out!” Aryn shouted, slamming his weight into the side of the door that opened. “Those claws are poisoned!”

  “Aryn!” Tania shouted. “Blood!”

  Aryn grunted, pushed off the door, and ran to her. Six complex blood glyphs now floated on the air. He grabbed Tania’s hand.

  The door cracked and Traeger grunted. The demon slammed against it, over and over. Sawblade shrieks filled the hall.

  Tania ignited her glyphs, the whole series at once. Aryn felt bl
ood rushing from his body, enough that it took him to his knees. The floor rumbled, dropping Aryn on top of Tania and Traeger on top of the floor.

  The palace quaked for what felt like an eternity. When it finally stopped, no more sawblade shrieks came from inside the door. There was no sound at all, just clouds of dust drifting through the hallway.

  Traeger rolled to his feet with his sword drawn, backing to Aryn and Tania. “What did you just do?” He stared at the door.

  “I collapsed the room.” Tania trembled, now flat on her back. “Not easy, when I can't bring down the floor above or collapse the one below.” She did not look like she was getting up anytime soon.

  “You killed it?” Traeger demanded.

  “It'll take an hour or so to dig its way out. A pair of Firebrands and some Hands of Heat should roast it quite nicely.”

  Aryn grimaced and helped Tania up. She leaned against him, sweat dotting her cheeks. Another detail he had thought never to see again.

  Traeger shook his head. “A demon in these very halls. Thank the Five it did not try to kill the king.” Then he straightened. “The king!”

  “I'm sure he's fine,” Tania offered gamely, but Traeger was off like an arrow from a bow. He did not look back.

  Aryn glanced at Tania. Her chest heaved and her body trembled. Her blond curls hung in disarray, yet she was alive. They were both alive, and Aryn knew what that doppelganger would have done to him if she had not stopped it.

  “You're amazing,” Aryn said.

  “Sometimes.” She managed a half-smirk.

  “How did you know Charrod was a doppelganger?”

  “Saw him in the dream world.”

  “How? All I saw was a normal man.”

  “Seeing through demon glamours is the next stage of our glyphed vision.” Tania wiped her forehead. “You're still learning this one.”

  “Oh.” That made sense. “Should we—”

  Tania kissed him, a long kiss that made him very warm. He felt dizzy. Blood loss, or something else?

  Aryn wobbled. “You aren't supposed to do that.”

  “Don't tell anyone and I might do it again.” She pulled him after Captain Traeger.

  Chapter 21

  XANDER HONURON HAD the gag out of his mouth and the ringmail gloves off his hands shortly after Aryn, Tania, and a rather disheveled looking Captain Traeger returned. Their tale of the doppelganger only made him more furious about his arrest. King Haven had wasted precious time, time Xander could have used to track Kara.

  “We were going to rescue her,” Ona whispered, clutching Xander's arm as they followed Traeger into the bowels of the palace complex. To the bodies of the people they now knew Xander had not killed.

  Xander hugged her close. “It was a stupid plan.”

  “I wish we'd done it.”

  “Me too.” Xander kissed the top of her head.

  Four legionnaires joined them before they left, increasing the guard on King Haven for obvious reasons. It was tough to protect someone when the assassin could look like anyone, including your dearest friend. Xander did not envy the legionnaires their task, but protecting King Haven wasn't his job. His job was keeping his family alive.

  Aryn glanced back once, walking now beside Traeger, and Xander glowered at him. The boy quickly looked ahead. Good. Aryn might think twice before hitting Xander in the head again.

  Tania, the woman who hadn't actually betrayed them this morning, walked as if she had just finished a marathon. She had spent a great deal of blood dispatching the Mavoureen doppelganger, but Xander doubted that made her less dangerous. He simply could not figure her out.

  Tania hunted Demonkin mages, which meant she was willing to murder people, but she also seemed genuinely sympathetic toward Ona and Aryn. Her order had hunted him for ten years, yet she now seemed quite happy to announce his innocence. No one was that generous.

  It seemed unlikely the doppelganger Tania had unmasked was the only Mavoureen servant in the palace, and fear for Kara clutched at Xander. He, more than most, knew what the demons were capable of. He buried his fears down deep. Ona must be feeling the same and he had to be strong, for her.

  Traeger opened a simple door that led into a stone cellar with a low roof. The mortuary. Two legionnaires waited outside the door and two joined Xander, Ona, Aryn, Tania, and King Haven inside. With Traeger.

  The smell of death and chemicals was overwhelming, and Xander measured each breath. The mortuary held eight slabs and three of them held bodies draped in sheets. Respect accorded the honored dead.

  “Your counsel asked to see the royal adept.” King Haven pointed at the closest slab. “Here he is.”

  Xander stalked over and pulled back the sheet. A pale, lanky man with a tangled black beard lay on the slab. Xander recognized the sheen of corpse clay patching his throat.

  No one looked well in death and Anylus looked more skeletal than most. Xander had seen this man only once, ten years ago, but this did appear to be Anylus. He might never know why the man wanted him dead.

  “Someone cut him so deep it damn near took his head off,” Traeger said. “You think it was that doppelganger?”

  Xander understood Captain Traeger's actions in the street a bit better now. With Kara missing, two guards asphyxiated, the royal adept murdered and a doppelganger putting Xander at the scene, it did seem fair to cast some suspicion his way.

  Someone had murdered Anylus, attacked or abducted Kara, and created a highly placed witness to accuse Xander of bloodsinging. Everything had been designed so Xander couldn't defend himself, but the planner must have assumed Xander would prove his innocence, eventually. That made this a race against time, one Xander must win.

  “Well, counsel?” King Haven raised a bushy white eyebrow. “What are your thoughts?”

  Aryn stepped forward. “Xander, I need you to examine the body. Tell me exactly how he was killed.”

  “You mean besides his slit throat?”

  “Humor me,” Aryn said. “Please.”

  Xander conceded the point. “May I?” he asked Traeger. An olive branch.

  Traeger nodded. Xander stared at the corpse of the man who had tried to murder him ten years ago. Why had Anylus sent Valar after him? Had he been working with the Mavoureen, and now they no longer needed him?

  Xander took the dream world and scowled. He should have seen it. A blind fool would have seen it. He opened his eyes and glanced at Traeger.

  “Mind summoning Erius, Captain?”

  Traeger crossed his arms. “What do you want with him?”

  “I need a second opinion.”

  “On what?”

  “You'll see.” Time for Traeger to hop to his tune.

  Captain Traeger did not move. Ona turned an imploring gaze on King Haven, stepping forward to catch his eye.

  “Please,” Ona said, clutching her hands together at her breast. “My daughter's out there, alone.”

  King Haven's eyes softened at Ona's obvious distress. Ona could be truly convincing when she wanted to be, and these men had not known her when she was younger, Kara's age. When she and Xander first met, an impassioned plea from Ona could send a man questing across a sea.

  “Fetch Erius.” King Haven dismissed Captain Traeger. “Hurry back.”

  Traeger saluted and left. Xander kept his distance from the king and his legionnaires, both to keep those soldiers comfortable and so their voices wouldn't carry. The others huddled close.

  “What is it?” Ona asked for all of them.

  “That's not Anylus,” Xander whispered back.

  All their eyes widened, but Aryn saw it first. “It's Councilman Charrod, isn't it?”

  “I don't know, but I don't want King Haven or anyone else questioning our objectivity.” Xander glanced at the closed door. “They need to hear it from one of theirs.”

  Ona bit her lip — a habit their daughter had inherited — and waited. Xander held Ona's hand until Traeger returned, Erius in tow.

  “My king!” Erius's
eyes widened at the sight of so many people. “To what do I owe this honor?” He certainly was polite.

  King Haven stared at Xander.

  “Erius,” Xander said, smiling at the young mage, “would you mind examining this corpse?”

  “Adept Anylus?” Erius glanced at the slab, at the body upon it, and turned a bit green.

  “So it seems.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Take the dream world. Tell me what you see.”

  Erius did as Xander asked. He approached the body, closed his eyes, and turned his dream world sight down. He jumped and opened his eyes.

  “That's not possible.”

  “Look again,” Xander suggested.

  The second time, Erius held the dream world longer. He opened his eyes and turned to King Haven, but did not speak. He seemed at a loss.

  “Out with it,” Haven said.

  Erius swallowed. “This is not Adept Anylus.”

  Xander had chosen the right man for the job. Erius might even prove useful in the future. Every Tellvan he had ever met always had a good head on their shoulders, which made Trell’s loss even more of a shame.

  “Who is it, then?” Traeger demanded.

  Xander gripped Erius's shoulder, calming the nervous man. “The glyphs were scribed on the roof of the corpse's mouth. You should be able to muss them easy enough. Just be careful. Get your hand out quick.”

  Erius gingerly reached into the corpse's mouth, wincing as he did so. He pulled his hand out as the chamber filled with the sound of snapping bones. The mouth snapped shut, teeth locking.

  “Five protect me,” Traeger whispered, as bone snapped and flesh changed. Soon an entirely different man lay on the mortuary's slab, one with black hair, no beard, and round cheeks. Nothing like Anylus's gaunt face.

  “Councilman Charrod.” King Haven stared at corpse. “I suppose that makes sense.”

  Traeger scowled. “So the royal adept was abducted as well? Could he and Kara still be together?”

  Xander knew now was the time to confront them about the incident ten years ago. He could make no stronger case than he could now, with the deception about Anylus's death revealed.