Legacy of the Devil Queen (Eve of Redemption Book 4)

by Joe Jackson

  “It’s just that we can move a lot faster and longer than you probably can,” Erik said, but he dismissed his own words with another wave of his hand. “We’ll get that figured out when we get to Winter’s Bounty and see where we need to go. We’ll also have to take Earl Lajere and the twins into account, but from what Kari said, I think they’re all accomplished riders.”

  They bantered on for a while longer, and Erik let his siblings fill Gabrius in on what they had done on Tsalbrin a few years before. Gabrius, a veteran of the War himself, served in one of Gnarr’s battalions that flanked Seril’s assault on DarkWind. That spoke volumes to Erik; anyone who had survived the fighting at DarkWind outside the walls was clearly someone who could hold their own in a fight. Gabrius seemed to be about the same age as Sonja, but he already had a lot of experience from the War and serving the Duke.

  Unlike on their trip to Tsalbrin, the Silver Blades were not afforded any space to train and practice their combative arts on the ship. The waiting annoyed Erik, but he dealt with it as best he could, passing some time playing cards with his siblings now and then, or going over possible strategies with Aeligos. Gabrius seemed to have a good grasp of tactics, which he attributed to serving with the Duke’s father, who hadn’t survived the fighting around DarkWind. With Sonja, Aeligos, and Gabrius giving him valuable input on what they faced, and Serenjols giving them an idea of what wildlife they might encounter in the south, Erik was confident they would be able to complete their mission.

  Lajere came into sight after only a few more days, and Erik asked the captain to dock but be ready to leave on a moment’s notice. With the captain’s agreement, the half-guardian put his dog tags out for all to see, and descended the gangway to the docks. He doubted the Earl and his protégés would be waiting around at the docks daily, so he gestured for Gabrius and his siblings to keep pace with him and set out toward the keep to the south. Erik returned the hasty salutes of the dock guards absently; none of them bothered to question the group with him in the lead.

  Erik had always heard Lajere was a wealthy city, but he’d never been so far south on the eastern coast. It was clear the city had already recovered from the War, when it was used as a primary beachhead and staging ground for the Light forces. Erik had heard of Markus Garant, the resident Earl, during the War: he had taken up the title of Earl upon the death of his father, but it was a position he was reputed to have been well-prepared for. With all Erik had heard about him during the War and from Kari after her work in Barcon, he was looking forward to meeting the paladin.

  They passed through the city as quickly and quietly as they could. Erik wasn’t surprised that their group of five half-demons drew a good amount of interested looks. The people all seemed more curious than condescending, though, particularly with Erik in the lead with his dog tags showing. He wondered briefly if Kari had attracted the same sort of looks when she passed through the city a few months before; most people couldn’t tell a terra-dracon from a half-demon without seeing their teeth. His mouth twitched as he considered his sister-in-law probably didn’t much care either way.

  Aeligos paused along the main thoroughfare, and Erik balked when he saw his younger brother staring at a brothel called the Satin Palace. After a moment’s thought, Erik wondered why Aeligos might be looking for information, especially in so seedy a location, when they were still so far from their destination. “What’re you thinking?” he asked at last.

  “Hmmm? Oh, nothing,” Aeligos answered absently, and then he turned and continued on his way. “Just…I think that’s the place Kari’s friend Eli owns.”

  “He owns a whorehouse?” Erik muttered. He didn’t remember anyone mentioning that.

  “A brothel,” Serenjols corrected him, causing Sonja to laugh.

  Erik stared impatiently at his elder brother. “I take it Damansha is teaching you humor?”

  Serenjols smirked and kept walking. “I have always had a sense of humor,” he said. “Just a quiet one.”

  The others chuckled and continued on ahead of him, but Erik sighed quietly through his nose and fell into step. He had to wonder how much of this sudden chattiness was to fill the void that Typhonix’ absence had left. Erik considered his youngest sibling a troublemaker and a pain in the ass at times, but Ty was a fellow demonhunter, and Erik knew that in the end, he could always rely on Ty. He was confident that his siblings, with the help of Gabrius, Earl Lajere, and the Moreville twins, would be more than enough to handle the current crisis, but he wished he had Ty and Kari with him just the same.

  The Silver Blades had left DarkWind before they’d gotten any definitive word on Ty’s condition, but Erik knew things looked bleak. Grakin had done a fantastic job with the wounds, but he’d said there was nerve damage that was beyond his – or anyone else’s, so far as he knew – ability to heal. Erik thought of the little green-haired priestess, Triela, from the Isle of Kirelia, and how she had helped keep Sherman Moreville alive with barely more than a gesture; was it possible she could heal such extensive damage as Ty had suffered?

  They turned onto a road that led south over a stone bridge, toward the keep on the other side of the river. Erik stopped when Aeligos did, and watched his younger brother take stock of the river, the bridge, and the general layout of the city. Aeligos continued on without a word, and Erik twisted his lips to the side in a grim smirk as he considered how tactical his younger brother seemed to be in any situation. There was virtually no need to take account of the city or its defenses considering how far they were from the problems in Marsdale, but that was what Aeligos was doing. Erik had no doubts about that.

  “Oh, it’s going to be so nice to see the twins again,” Sonja said. “Gods, they were barely old enough to consider adults, last we saw them.”

  “I imagine the time with the Earl will have changed them more than the years,” Erik said.

  “I look forward to testing their progress with the greatsword,” Jol mused.

  “Should be just like old times,” Aeligos said. “Hi, you two! We’re headed into a possible war; would you like to join us? It’ll build character!”

  They hadn’t even made it to the gates of the keep before three riders approached from the west. The first was a blonde, armored knight on a white steed, and he reined the stallion in a respectful distance from the group of half-demons. The first thing that struck Erik was that the human was fully armored in plate mail, and his saddle was adorned with a number of different weapons: a longsword, a greatsword, a bow, a quiver of arrows, and a kite shield. The decorative nature of his tabard and the coat of arms that adorned it – depicting horses and griffons – left Erik with no doubts that this was Earl Markus Garant of Lajere.

  Following slightly behind and to either side of the Earl were the Moreville twins, who looked a little different to Erik’s discerning eye. Sherman had filled out a bit in muscle since Erik had last seen him, and the human now sported a full but close-cropped beard and mustache. Facial hair was a curiosity to the rir, but even as a half-demon, Erik could see the way the beard framed the young man’s face and gave him an appearance of additional years. Sherman’s chestnut gelding had a saddle that was adorned with the same array of weaponry and shield as his master’s, and the human was likewise armored and wearing an official-looking tabard.

  Katarina had a regal bearing astride her own chestnut gelding, looking every bit a noble woman and a seasoned warrior at the same time. Once the horses came to a stop, she took off the casque and coif she was wearing and shook out her long, sun-lightened hair. She was very pretty for a human, even to Erik’s eyes, but he was far more impressed with what he’d heard about her role in Kari’s hunt in Barcon. Katarina was advancing quickly as a paladin, and if her brother was even half as refined, Erik was satisfied he was about to add considerable strength to his party.

  “Greetings, Your Lordship,” Erik called out, and he approached the blonde knight on the lead horse.

  The blonde knight dismounted gracefully, removed his helm,
and hung it on the pommel of his saddle casually. He stopped before Erik and looked the demonhunter up and down before a laughing smile appeared on his face. “Good day,” he said. “You must be Erijinkor Tesconis; I have heard much about you and your siblings. Though, I have to admit, I have often suspected that my students’ descriptions of you may have been…exaggerated.” He chuckled, and Erik and his siblings did likewise. “But forgive me; I am Markus Garant, the Earl of Lajere.”

  “Erijinkor Tesconis, Demonslayer, by Zalkar’s Grace,” Erik replied formally with the typical demonhunter salute. He introduced his companions quickly, and the Earl took his gloves off and cordially shook hands with each of the Tesconis siblings as well as Gabrius.

  “Gabrius Tevone?” Markus asked, and the half-brys nodded. “I have heard much about you, as well; the Duke has graced us with a very capable member of his Order.”

  The twins dismounted together and approached, and Markus smirked at them before motioning toward the Silver Blades. Handshakes and hugs were exchanged, and Erik didn’t miss the warm embrace between Sonja and Katarina. The demonhunter was impressed with the sight before him: the twins had obviously matured a great deal since he last saw them. There was none of that clueless teenaged innocence about them anymore, and their dress and the sense of order about their horses and the equipment they, too, carried told Erik that the twins had been refined into something resembling soldiers. Better than that, they were paladins: holy warriors who empowered their sword arms with their faith, not unlike Erik and other demonhunters.

  “How have you two been?” Erik asked once the initial pleasantries were finished.

  “We’ve been well,” Sherman said. “It was nice to see Kari again a few months past, and it is good to see you all again as well. I just wish the circumstances were less dire.”

  “Agreed,” Markus added. “Would you all like to come up to the keep? It won’t take long to gather our things in preparation to head south, and we can discuss our roles as we walk.”

  Erik nodded, and Markus offered his horse to Sonja, who politely refused. Once the three paladins had remounted, they led their half-demon companions toward the keep.

  “Where is Typhonix?” Sherman asked.

  That silent melancholy settled over the group again, and Erik blew out a sigh. “He was injured badly helping Kari with something. He’s at the temple of Tigron, seeing if they can heal him. Things don’t look very good right now, but he’s a fighter. We just have to hold out hope.”

  “We’ll keep him in our prayers,” Katarina offered, with the others silent agreeing.

  The trip to the keep was a short distance, which hopefully meant they could be back in the city and get underway again while the sun was still up. Erik would’ve preferred that the Earl and the twins meet them in the city, but he understood they couldn’t just sit around at the docks waiting on a ship that had no definitive time of arrival. Still, every delay could mean disaster in the south, and he hoped things would play out slowly until they arrived, like had happened on Tsalbrin three years before.

  “I received a message from the Duke not long after I received Kari’s,” the Earl said. “He has asked that I continue on to the city of Marsdale once the rest of you are in Winter’s Bounty. Earl Pendergast’s wife is not prepared to rule the county, and his son is still but a teenager, so the Duke would like me to go and lend my aid by taking the reins. I know it is a blow to your plans, but I must do as my liege commands.”

  Erik swore in the back of his mind but made an effort not to let it show on his face. “I understand,” he said. “I think three paladins is still a more than sufficient amount for what we think we’re up against. We could probably still use a few more people, though…”

  “Well, you will also have Sharyn with you,” Markus said as they drew up to the gates of the keep. “And here she is now.”

  There was a human woman there, dressed in black leather gear with a greatsword across her back and numerous shorter blades and knives sheathed here and there. She had tanned skin, which was unusual for humans in the south; scars along her jawline and the side of her neck; and a dangerous air about her that Erik didn’t miss even at first glance. She had long, raven hair and matching eyes, and she took in the group of half-demons with a gleam in those orbs that would have put Erik on the defensive in any other situation.

  “You lost again,” the woman commented to the Earl and the twins.

  “We stopped the search so we could go greet our friends,” Sherman said with a chuckle.

  “Excuses, excuses,” Sharyn taunted in a sing-song voice that failed utterly to spread any mirth to her face or her eyes.

  “Sharyn has been training us in the art of tracking, even while mounted,” Katarina said to her friends. “Though she takes no small amount of pleasure in showing us just how bad we can be at it sometimes.”

  “Tracking?” Gabrius repeated. “That’s interesting; I happen to be a fairly proficient tracker myself.”

  Erik chuckled at the half-brys’ modesty, and Sherman added, “Well, with a half-brys and a werewolf doing the tracking, I don’t imagine we’ll have much trouble finding our enemy.”

  His declaration was met with chuckles from Katarina and Markus, but silence from all of the half-demons. Erik was glad he wasn’t the only one confused. He looked to his siblings and saw that all of them were just as surprised – except, perhaps, for Aeligos. Erik finally looked to their hosts again and asked, “What? A werewolf? What are you talking about?”

  There was another brief silence, pierced only by a hmmmm from Aeligos, before the Earl spoke. “Kari didn’t mention Sharyn to you?”

  “She did mention werewolves helping with her hunt in Barcon,” Aeligos interjected. “Just not by name, or that they were friends.”

  “Sharyn is a werewolf?” Erik asked, and he felt as dumb as he sounded.

  “Not the kind you’re probably thinking of,” the woman answered. “I already explained all of this to your sister-in-law. We’re natural shapeshifters, not the moon-crazed lycanthropes you’ve heard about your whole life. But, yes, I’m a werewolf.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” Erik muttered. He wondered that Kari would send him into a situation like this completely unprepared. She knew he was usually hesitant to trust new people; didn’t she think having him suddenly work with a werewolf would raise his hackles a bit?

  “It is not common knowledge,” the Earl said calmly. “Even the people of the city know only that a young human woman is our guest while courting Sherman.”

  “Courting Sherman?” Erik blurted. “What the hell is going on here?”

  “Erik, calm down,” Sonja chided him.

  “Now it makes a bit more sense,” Aeligos said, drawing everyone’s attention. “If you remember, Kari had us looking for a werewolf in DarkWind that she had invited to come speak to the Order’s council. My guess is not only aren’t these werewolves insane, but their bites must not be infectious either, am I right?” Sharyn nodded silently. “So Gil is someone you know, and Kari was thinking of using your kind as allies to the Order, no?”

  Sharyn nodded again, but surprisingly, Serenjols was the next to speak. “Clearly, we must have a conversation with Kari about springing surprises on us,” he said, though his mouth betrayed a smile, hard as he tried to hide it.

  “So you can’t turn other people into werewolves?” Erik asked, trying to stay on point.

  The woman shook her head. “No more than your bite could turn other people into half-demons,” she said.

  Erik didn’t like her tone, but before he could respond, Serenjols spoke up. “Serilian-rir,” the eldest Tesconis sibling said dryly, making Aeligos and Sonja laugh.

  The demonhunter shook his head. “Does anyone else have a surprise they’d like to drop on us before we get underway?” he asked, though he tried to make it sound mirthful. Sharyn answered with a challenging stare, but no one said anything else. He turned to the Earl. “Kari mentioned you have trained griffons. Are
you planning to fly south to Marsdale? Or do you have enough of them for all of us to fly there?”

  Markus blew out a sigh and shook his head. “I could fly ahead, but with the uncertainty of what we face, I suspect that would be a mistake. Likewise, we could train each of you to fly one of my mounts, but it would cost us valuable time, so I don’t think we’d be any better off than if we were to simply go by ship, as originally planned. If you feel differently, I’m open to your suggestions or advice.”

  “Most of us have no real experience riding,” Aeligos said. “It might be more trouble than it’s worth, much as I’d love to learn to ride a flying mount.”

  “Yea, I think we’ll just continue by ship,” Erik said. “We’ll just have to trust that the nobility is fortifying the cities and towns against the attacks until we can get there.”

  Markus nodded with the assessments and the group all headed into the bailey, but they didn’t need to enter the keep. Within a few minutes, the servants were loading the four humans’ – or three humans’ and one werewolf’s – things into a horse-drawn cart. They were back on the road to the city in less than half an hour, and Erik was satisfied that they’d at least be able to set sail again before nightfall.

  While they made their way back to the city, the Earl rode up beside Erik. “I know all of this is a lot to take in; I found myself nearly overwhelmed by it not so very long ago,” he said. “I would advise you to trust in Kari’s instincts, for I’ve found that they are quite sharp and have yet to lead me or my students astray.”

  Erik looked up at the blonde human, but couldn’t find anything to say. He was a half-demon – no matter what Serenjols or anyone else wanted to say – and was quite familiar with what it was like to be treated unfairly, whether to his face or behind his back. Still, he held firm to the belief that certain things simply didn’t deserve his trust or respect without earning them first. Whether the serilis-rir and the residents of the underworld – Mehr’Durillia, as the case may be – were truly demons really didn’t matter in the end. Erik couldn’t afford to trust either until they demonstrated they were worthy of that trust. The same held true for Sharyn or any other “person” of a questionable race; werewolves weren’t discriminated against for no reason.