by Joe Jackson
Amastri made a face, and Kari could pretty well guess the answer she was about to give. “Her Majesty will likely employ the services of the Ashen Fangs, and to my knowledge, they do not work with anyone outside their own,” she answered.
“Oh, terrific,” Kari said. “Your king is going to send more members of an assassin’s guild that’s already got someone interested in killing me among their number…that won’t cause me any trouble at all.”
“Did you not tell me that you thought you had seen Seanada here already?” Amastri countered. “If that is the case, then she is unlikely to be the one chosen to fulfill Her Majesty’s contract. Even if not, with her sister’s recent activities here, I very much doubt that whoever is in charge of the Fangs would send Seanada here in the wake of Turillia’s deeds.”
“So you don’t even know who the head of the Ashen Fangs is?” Kari asked.
Amastri waved her hand about. “Everyone knows him by reputation,” she said. “No one knows him by name. He goes only by the moniker The Wraith, and no one knows his true face or identity – I suspect not even you, after your personal experience with him.”
Kari was floored; if The Wraith was the head of the Ashen Fangs, that meant Turillia had worked for him. She wondered how she had gotten caught between them, with The Wraith being assigned to protect her while Turillia tried to murder her. As she thought about it, Kari realized The Wraith had referred to having a master, and she wondered if that master might have sent The Wraith to do one thing and Turillia to do something counter to it. Perhaps The Wraith wasn’t the mastermind of the Ashen Fangs at all, but rather just a high-ranking assassin who, due to his abilities, was allowed to take the fall for the guild’s activities.
“So he knew Turillia?” Kari ventured, wanting to see how much Amastri really knew.
“I assume he did,” the half-elven woman answered with a nod. “It would seem that The White Serpent was a rogue agent of his, pursuing her own goals in spite of his orders. I know very little of the Ashen Fangs or their workings, so I cannot say for certain what happened that she apparently worked against her master.”
“Turillia was called The White Serpent?” Kari asked, and Amastri nodded. “Does her sister have a nickname also, like her mother being called The Vandrasse?”
“The Silent Fang,” Amastri answered. “To my knowledge, Seanada is deadlier than her sister, but she is also much less volatile.”
Kari shook her head. “Will The Wraith order someone to kill me as revenge for killing Turillia, though? Even after he protected me?”
“I cannot say for certain,” the half-elven woman said. “However, my instincts tell me that would be beyond foolish.”
“I wish I knew more about them,” Kari said.
Amastri chuckled. “That feeling is mutual.”
“Will you keep your ears open for any word of possible revenge from them?” Kari asked.
“I already am, for that aligns with Her Majesty’s wishes as well,” Amastri said. “I fear that is all the news I bring you for now, but I will return if I hear of anything else of interest to your Order.”
“What was the other news you said you had spoken with your contacts about?”
Amastri smiled. “Something to ease your mind, perhaps. Seanada has been sighted recently in Mas’tolinor, so she is no longer here on Citaria. If she was hunting you, it appears that is no longer her priority.”
Kari blew out a relieved sigh. “Thanks,” she said with a nod. She rose and escorted Amastri to the front door and then the gates of the campus, and saw the half-elven woman off. The afternoon was just unfolding, so Kari still had time before she was to meet with Eli and Danilynn. She wished she had some way to get in contact with Eryn when Aeligos wasn’t around; she wanted Eryn to help with her plan to expose the mole.
She returned to her office, intent on making sure there was nothing else that required her attention, so she could focus all of her efforts on the mole when that time came.
*****
Eli and Danilynn arrived at mid-afternoon as expected, and they were brought into Kari’s office. They took seats across from Kari, and the terra-dracon woman stared at the two of them for a couple of minutes before she spoke. It was hard to believe that just a few months ago, she’d never heard of, let alone met, either of them, and yet now they were so integral to her life and her work. Eli had proven invaluable to Kari’s work in Barcon, and Danilynn deserved much of the credit for Kari returning alive from Mehr’Durillia. Was it just chance that kept leading her to these people?
Looking at them now, Kari wondered what was occupying their time and what their plans were for the future. Doubtless they were as busy as she was with everything that had happened in recent weeks, but they were sharing a bed in Kyrie’s home, so Kari knew their relationship had to be a frequent topic between them. Kari was pretty sure Danilynn was working in the local temple of Garra Ktarra when time allowed. As far as she knew, Eli was working at the same smithy where Serenjols was a partner. Kari wondered if Danilynn had made a decision whether or not to be Eli’s mate, but she shook away the thoughts, realizing this wasn’t the time or place.
“I went over things with the Council, so now I want to go over my plan with you,” Kari said at length. “I still haven’t gotten in touch with Eryn, and I think we’ll definitely want her working with you on this. Between you two, Tor, and potentially whichever syrinthian I send with you, I think you’ll have plenty of martial prowess. I’d like to send some cover fire with you, though, either from an archer or perhaps a spellcaster. There’s a chance that if this plan works, you’ll be attacked by a larger force than I’m expecting. On top of keeping Tor safe like you said, I’d like to keep the two of you safe as well.”
Danilynn smiled, and Eli said, “Tell us what you’re thinking.”
Kari looked around her office suspiciously, wondering if there might be some arcane device hidden within that allowed outsiders to listen in on her conversations. It was more likely it was a person stealing and leaking the information to their enemies, and Kari supposed if this ambush she was trying to set up was countered, it might confirm that suspicion. “I have a plan, but it’s going to be tough to put it in motion without alerting our enemies,” Kari said, her stare lingering on objects in the office rather than her companions. “I’m going to officially send you two south to help the rest of the family, but what I want you to do is go hide out on one of the southern farms.”
She could see her friends were confused. “Every order I give seems to go right into the ears of our enemies,” Kari explained. “As far as the rest of the Order is concerned, you two and Tor are going to be sent down south to aid in the crisis there. Hopefully, if our mole and our enemies believe that, they won’t be prepared for the counter-ambush you’re going to spring.”
“Start at the beginning,” Eli interrupted. “What exactly do you have in mind? What are we going to be doing?”
Kari pursed her lips; he was right. Unlike Aeligos, she had simply started going over all the tangential issues and possible repercussions before she’d told her friends what was going on. She nodded to Eli’s words and sighed, and she sat back in her chair and put her feet up on her desk. She rested her hands on her expanding belly, and she didn’t miss the smiles on her friends’ faces, or the one they shared when they glanced at each other.
“Here’s what I had in mind,” Kari began. “I’m going to send someone – hopefully one of the syrinthian women – south to Gnarr, pretending to be Se’sasha. My goal is to let it slip that we’re sending her to the Avenger Order to tell them everything she knows about Mehr’Durillia and its kings. I have a feeling that Sekassus’ agent in the city will pass along that information, and an ambush will be set up to either re-capture or kill Se’sasha. That coach escorting her, of course, is going to have the two of you, Tor, and hopefully Eryn Olgaryn along as well. So when the trap gets sprung, it’s going to be the ambushers who are ambushed.”
“So you’re hoping we
can capture some prisoners who’ll tell us who the mole is?” Eli reasoned.
Kari shook her head. “No, we’re going to make it easier than that,” she said. “I want all of the ambushers killed, and I want Sekassus to know they were set up. My gut tells me that if the demon king thinks his agent has been…compromised, he’ll have the agent killed. We can force Sekassus to root out his own mole for us. But more importantly than that, I want Sekassus to wonder if we’re not completely on to him now. After all, we rooted out all of his syrinthian spies, and now we’re potentially going to kill his most important agent in the city. When you consider we were just in Sorelizar a few weeks ago, I think he’ll start wondering if we have a mole amongst his people.”
“And if he begins to wonder about that, then his attention must be pulled away from Se’sasha,” Danilynn said, and Kari nodded.
“That’s a hell of an idea,” Eli said.
“The most important thing is that no one in the Order knows about this,” Kari said, and her friends nodded their assent. “We have no idea who the mole is, so I haven’t told anyone of this plan except Lord Allerius and the Council. Because honestly, if Zalkar’s highest-ranking priests turn out to be spies for Sekassus, we have bigger problems than keeping Se’sasha safe.”
Eli and Danilynn chuckled. “I think it’s safe to assume no member of the clergy could manage such a deception,” the priestess said.
Kari was in agreement, so she continued, “I’m going to issue orders to make it look like I’m sending the two of you and Tor out of town by ship. We don’t have any high-ranked hunters on campus right now outside of the instructors themselves. If the mole knows the two of you are here and meeting with me – which I have no doubts they do – they may assume this is a trap. So if the three of you can make it look like you’re boarding a ship to leave, you can hide out either on one of the farms to the southwest, or just beyond them. When I send our decoy, they’d be insane to attack it within DarkWind or any of its surrounding baronies, so you should be able to join with the driver and decoy and proceed south with them. When the ambush comes, you’ll be more prepared than they are, I’m sure.”
“If the ambushers follow the coach for a while before they actually attack, they may see us boarding it,” Eli suggested. “Maybe you can pull some strings with one of the local barons, and the coach can make an unscheduled stop at one of their stables. We can be waiting there, and the coach can pretend one of the horses has come up lame, or the coach needs a minor repair, or something similar. It may give us better cover to get on board the coach without potential spies seeing us.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Kari said. “I’ll have to keep the contact with whatever baron we choose quiet, though. I’m pretty sure the mole either has ears in the Duke’s court or is a member of the court himself, or that there’s other moles in the Duke’s court. Maybe you can check with Tor and see if he knows any trustworthy nobles. He spends more time around the Duke’s castle than any of us.”
“I’ll go take care of that after supper tonight,” Danilynn offered.
Kari smiled; the priestess was probably happy to take any excuse to go see her friend. “That leaves only one other point: finding a driver and guard I can depend on. I have a few in mind, but like the decoy, I won’t be able to ask them until the last minute. I can’t give them any opportunity to tell anyone, intentionally or not, about what’s actually happening.”
“I’ll make sure I tell Tor somewhere we can be alone,” Danilynn said.
Kari nodded. “Why don’t you two head back to the house and make like you’re getting ready for a journey?” she said. “I’ll get the wheels in motion for this plan.”
Her friends rose and departed, and with the door still open, Kari’s assistant, Joaquim, came and knocked on the frame. “I was going to head home for the day, ma’am. Is there anything you need before I leave?”
“Yes,” Kari said. “I need you to send someone to the docks and commission a ship to take my two friends and one other south, after the last group we sent to the southlands. They’ll need to leave first thing in the morning if possible, so talk to every captain and find me one that we can contract immediately.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the human said before he departed.
Kari rose and left her office, and let the clerks know she was headed home for the day. They directed her to go see the Council before she left, though, so Kari went to the temple. The entire Council wasn’t gathered, but Masters Bennet, Perez, and Arinotte were standing in the chapel of the temple waiting for her. Kari wasn’t sure what they might want, but then it occurred to her that they might want to discuss the matter she had brought before Master Warner.
“Masters,” Kari greeted the trio, and she saluted them.
“Lady Vanador, excellent,” Master Bennet said. “We do not wish to keep you long, we only wanted to ask about something Master Warner mentioned to us. He said you are seeing our lord’s symbol appear without calling upon a Blood Oath?”
“Yes, Master,” Kari said. “It’s happened on a few occasions now: when I stood in front of Sekassus after he killed a young woman; when I brought that young woman’s ashes back to her mother; when I fought Taesenus; and when I stood in front of the Temple of Archons and touched its lock.”
Master Bennet regarded his two companions, and Master Perez made the gesture and spoke the word that had revealed Kari’s Blood Oath months before. It had no effect this time, but Kari was only slightly surprised; she knew she wasn’t under a Blood Oath. At the same time, she wished it had worked, and that it would mean the priests had some idea of what the cause was. The men held a whispered conversation, and then all three turned their gazes back to Kari, the hints of smiles in their eyes.
Master Bennet started to speak but stopped and thought to himself. “The young woman who was killed on Mehr’Durillia…tell us about her,” he said. “What was her name?”
The suddenness of the inquiry and the memories it evoked brought tears to Kari’s eyes instantly. “Uldriana,” she said in a breathy whisper, and she closed her eyes and wiped the tears from them. “Her name was Uldriana, and she was one of the bravest people I’ve ever met.”
“By the Unyielding,” Master Arinotte said quietly.
Kari opened her eyes and saw that the area was bathed in the light blue glow of Zalkar’s symbol upon her breastplate. It was pulsing warmly and slowly, not furiously like it had in many of the situations she’d mentioned. It had responded to her emotions instantly, though, and Kari wondered if her emotions getting the better of her might be the reason. Certainly the fact that she was pregnant would also have a lot to do with it, if that was the case. “This is what I meant,” she said. “Is it because I’m just getting overwhelmed by emotions?”
All three men shook their heads, and Master Perez spoke. “No, Lady Vanador, though emotions are a part of it. This is a mystery among the Order, one that is not explained to its hunters until something like this takes place. To ease your tensions a little, this is not something unique to you: Turik Jalar and Jason Bosimar experienced a similar thing.”
Kari perked up at that; did he mean...?
“The rank of Fist of Retribution is reserved for a certain class of hunter,” Master Perez continued. “In short, it is for those to whom this never happens. Because, Lady Vanador, what you are experiencing is being marked by Zalkar: marked for testing to become an Avatar of Vengeance. If this had never happened to you, you would eventually be promoted to the rank of Fist of Retribution, and there you would remain for the rest of your career. But you have been marked by Zalkar, and you have now entered the final stage of testing to receive his ultimate gift to hunters: the rank of Avatar of Vengeance.”
“Ugh, but that means I picked the worst possible time to get pregnant, didn’t I?” Kari asked, trying to make light of it, though she was a little frustrated.
Master Bennet waved off the question. “There are many ways in which you will be tested,” he said. “You are assu
ming you need to be tested in the field, Lady Vanador, but bear in mind that you’ve been promoted thirteen times because of your body of work in the field. These tests will be more specific to your personality: your dreams, your desires, your inner fire, your nobility – in honor, not in title, that is. I have little doubt you will pass these tests easily, but the Unyielding may test you in areas neither you nor we expect. But trust that you will be tested in ways that take your current familial status into account.”
Kari scratched at her snout. “I had a feeling the Unyielding might be a little upset with me because of all the changes I’ve been sort of forcing on the Order…the serilis-rir, the way we look at the people of Mehr’Durillia, my dealings with the demon kings.”
Master Arinotte shook his head. “Quite the opposite, it would seem. If our lord had any questions about your motives or methods, then this,” he said, pointing to her chest, “wouldn’t be happening. Everything you’ve been telling us has certainly been a lot to take in and accept at face value, Lady Vanador, but make no mistake: you are doing our lord’s work, making certain that our mercy grows in tandem with our justice.”
“So is there anything specific I should be doing?” Kari asked.
“Just keep doing what you have been doing,” Master Bennet said. “That is the reason you have been chosen, and your testing will follow suit.”
“Thank you, Masters,” she said with a bow. “If there’s nothing else, I wanted to ask you about something…sensitive.”
“By all means,” Master Bennet said, gesturing for her to speak freely.
“I was recently told by a very reliable source that members of our Order were at the vanguard of the forces that wiped out the seterra-rir,” she said. The three priests looked at her in shock, but Kari could tell it wasn’t that they were unaware, but that they were surprised anyone else knew about it. “Are there records about it in the archives? I’m curious to know exactly what happened and why.”