He skidded to a halt as a bare-headed Lady Briana flung herself out of the back door and seized the sack from Hailen. Tears streamed down the Dhukari girl’s face as she pawed through the contents of the cloth sack.
“Yes!” Relief and triumph echoed in her cry as she pulled out a leather-bound book and clutched it to her breast. Her eyes lifted to Hailen. “Thank you! Thank you!”
Hailen looked embarrassed, and the light of a candle streaming through the kitchen window illuminated the blush that rose to his cheeks. He mumbled an inaudible reply.
A moment later, the dark-skinned warrior—Hailen called her Aisha–stepped out of the doorway. “You saved her father’s journals.”
Hailen nodded. “And the Serenii artifacts and anything else I could grab.”
Briana cried out again, another wordless expression of gratitude.
“What’s going on?” Evren asked.
Hailen half-jumped, half-spun toward him, his jaw dropping. Aisha raised her spear as she whirled to face him, and Briana gave a little squeak of surprise.
“Damn it, Evren!” Anger clouded Hailen’s face. “You know I hate it when you do that!”
Evren grinned. “Did you see me following you?”
“Following me?” Hailen’s face fell. “For how long?”
“Since Death Row.”
“No,” Hailen replied, crestfallen. “I was so focused on following the others and staying out of sight that—”
“Where the bloody hell have you been?” The question came from the pale-skinned bodyguard, Kodyn, who had emerged behind Aisha.
Evren’s gut tightened. “Out.”
“Evren.” Hailen’s tone was chiding.
Evren clenched his teeth. After so many years on the streets, trust came hard to him. He’d only trusted the Hunter after the assassin had saved his life. He didn’t know why he’d told Killian the truth when they first met, though thankfully it had worked in his favor. But to trust Kodyn, Aisha, and Lady Briana with the truth felt like a lot for them to ask of him.
And yet, Hailen’s words from earlier came back to him. “We’ll never know if we don’t give them a chance.”
Evren drew in a deep breath. He’d have to take a gamble that being honest with these people would pay off, not get him stabbed or arrested. Right now, with the threat of the Ybrazhe Syndicate looming over him, he needed all the allies he could get. And trust could only be built if he was forthcoming. Not with bits and pieces, but with everything that they’d need to know to accept that their goals were aligned.
“I guess it’s time I tell you the truth of what Hailen and I are really doing in Shalandra.” The words stuck in his throat, but he forced them out. “But not out here. Upstairs.” He drew in a deep breath. “And prepare yourselves. What I’m going to tell you will be very hard to believe.
Chapter Thirteen
Kodyn studied the servant, Evren, though wary eyes. “So, now’s the time you tell us that ‘hard to believe’ truth.” His hand strayed toward the hilt of his sword.
The clearly implied threat rolled off Evren without effect. Kodyn had to give the young Shalandran credit—he stood in the small upstairs bedroom, empty-handed and outnumbered, yet his expression remained unfazed. Indeed, he actually seemed to be stifling a sardonic grin as he looked from Kodyn’s face to his sword and back up again.
“What I’m about to say may sound insane,” Evren began in a hesitant voice, “but know that it is the absolute truth. A truth known only by a handful of people in all of Einan.”
Kodyn tried to hide an incredulous snort. This ought to be good. He leaned back against the wall of the room Briana had claimed for her own and studied the young man through narrowed eyes. He looked almost like any other Shalandran, though his skin had a hint less gold, more a dusky brown. His accent wasn’t quite as musical as Briana’s, but softer and with less rounding of the vowels.
The flickering light of the two candles seemed to lend Evren’s tone a greater solemnity as he spoke. “I’ve come to Shalandra to steal the Blade of Hallar.”
“You’ve come to steal one of our most sacred relics?” Briana’s face darkened. “I ought to summon the Keeper’s Blades here right now, have them clap you in irons to—”
“I’m not here to steal it for myself.” Evren brushed off the acidic tone of her words yet, to his surprise, he actually found himself wanting the others to believe his story. “I’m doing it because it’s going to help save the world from destruction by a being so powerful, it killed the Serenii.”
Kodyn’s jaw dropped. Now that’s a story! Aisha’s face revealed nothing, but Briana’s incredulity matched his own.
“The Devourer of Worlds is a force of chaos that is trying to unmake the world, and only Kharna—a Serenii that we called a god, like all the other gods of Einan—is holding it back.” The words poured from Evren’s mouth in a torrent, like an overflowing dam finally unblocked. “The Hunter of Voramis is trying to save Einan from destruction, but to do that he needs to collect the life force of a million souls. Or, enough of the Abiarazi demons living in the disguise of humans. And the Blade of Hallar is a special Serenii-made weapon that will collect those souls and feed them to Kharna. So I have come to Shalandra to steal the Blade so I can help the Hunter to protect the world from the Devourer.”
Throughout Evren’s speech, Briana’s expression had gone from cynical to disbelieving to curious to outright stunned. She seemed paralyzed by indecision, as if she didn’t know whether to believe every word or dismiss everything as a bald-faced lie.
Yet Kodyn knew the answer. He hated to admit it—he still had plenty of reasons to suspect Evren of being a spy, a traitor, or some kind of threat to Briana—yet on this one count the thief had been truthful.
“He’s telling the truth,” he said. “Every word of it.”
Such a massive tale—ancient beings of terrible power, a world-destroying evil, magical daggers, demons hiding among humans—had to either be real or a madman’s fabrication. His mother had a knack for telling apart truths and lies; if she believed the Hunter, and the evidence of her own eyes, Kodyn trusted her. Ria’s corroborating testimony only served to reinforce the accuracy of the claims.
It was Evren’s turn to be stunned. He gaped, wordless, eyes fixed on Kodyn. “W-What?” he finally managed to stammer out.
Kodyn hid a triumphant grin. “The Hunter of Voramis told my mother in Praamis, and she told me.” His gesture included Aisha as well. “Us.”
Evren’s eyes darted to the Ghandian girl, who nodded.
“Wait, what?” Evren still seemed at a loss for words. “You mean…what?!”
This time, Kodyn couldn’t help letting his grin show. “The Hunter of Voramis, the assassin you work for, came to Praamis a few weeks ago. He came hunting one of these Abaza—”
“Abiarazi,” Evren corrected, a fraction of a second ahead of Hailen.
Kodyn scowled. “These demons. Long story short, he ended up working with us—”
“The Night Guild.” Evren’s words came as a statement, not a question.
Kodyn snapped his mouth shut, eyes narrowing in suspicion. No one aside from Aisha, Briana, and the Black Widow knew who he really was or what brought him to Shalandra. Unless Evren’s in league with the Black Widow, there’s no other way he could have figured it out, right? Doubt flashed through his mind. Had he or Aisha done or said anything to give themselves away?
Evren’s expression turned smug. “You’re not the only ones who know things.”
Aisha continued before Kodyn recovered. “The Hunter helped the Night Guild hunt down the Gatherers, who were murdering people in their strange death-worshipping rituals. Together, the Guild and the Hunter took down those responsible, including the Abiarazi that the Hunter had come to Praamis to hunt.”
Triumph sparkled in Evren’s eyes, and he exchanged a beaming grin with Hailen.
Kodyn regained his composure enough to continue. “After, the Hunter came and spoke to my mother, t
elling her everything about the Serenii, the Devourer of Worlds, the demons, and his mission. My mother actually saw one of these Ab-ee-arazi…” Again, he stumbled on the unfamiliar word. “…with her own eyes. That’s kind of how she knew he was telling the truth about it all. Including that bit about the gods being nothing more than Serenii that the ancient humans worshipped.”
“And you just believed something so big that easily?” Evren seemed surprised by this fact.
Kodyn shrugged. “The Night Guild’s never had much use for the gods—beyond the Watcher in the Dark, patron of thieves, of course. Plus, the whole demon-in-human-disguise thing really sold it, at least to my mother, Ria, Jarl, and everyone else who saw the damned thing. Kind of hard to ignore that sort of evidence.”
Not for the first time, Kodyn wished he’d been there to see it. Not that he regretted choosing to care for Briana and getting the other freed captives back to the safety of the Night Guild, of course. But something like that, a real live demon from the legends, is the sort of thing you only see once in a lifetime.
Evren turned to Aisha. “And you?”
Aisha’s expression grew pensive. “My people believe in the Kish’aa, the spirits of our ancestors. The gods are to be revered, but we do not worship them the way the rest of Einan does.” She shrugged. “It was not too hard to believe the Hunter’s tale, though I will admit that there is much about it that I do not understand.”
“Tell me about it!” Evren nodded. “I’ve been working with the Hunter for almost four years now, and there’s still so much I don’t know.”
A spluttering sound came from Briana, who had fallen onto her bed at some point. She seemed to struggle to find the words to speak.
“I…don’t understand!” she finally managed to stammer out.
Evren smiled at her. “I’ll do what I can to explain it. You see, the Serenii that lived at the same time as early humans offered mankind the shelter and safety of their cities, and—”
“No, not that!” Briana snapped. “You said that something ‘killed the Serenii’?”
“Oh, yeah, that.” Evren nodded. “Yes, the Serenii are killed off. Well, the ones that stayed to fight the Devourer of Worlds, that is. All of the rest, the cowardly ones, fled to another universe.” His face scrunched up. “That’s one I don’t quite understand, but that’s how the Hunter explained it.”
“So the Serenii are dead?” Briana spoke in a clear, precise tone as if trying to make sense of the confusing words. “All of them?”
“All but Kharna, yes,” Evren replied. “They sacrificed themselves to feed Kharna in his battle against the Great Devourer.”
“But then if the Serenii are dead, how does he have their blood?” Briana thrust a finger at Hailen.
Again, surprise registered on Evren’s face. “W-wait, who said anything about Hailen having Serenii blood?”
“His blood activated the Serenii artifacts.” It was Briana’s turn to speak in the patient voice of a mother explaining something to a recalcitrant toddler. “There’s only one way that would happen, and it would be if he had Serenii blood.”
Evren’s expression suddenly grew guarded.
Looks like Briana hit that one right on the head, Kodyn thought.
“Seems kind of an impossibility, if the Serenii died out…” Briana cocked her head. “…how long ago?”
“Five thousand years, give or take.”
Evren’s matter-of-fact tone struck Kodyn as incredibly odd. He’d had a harder time wrapping his mind around the Hunter’s words than he’d let on. Even now, he still struggled with the realization that the gods weren’t actually real. He’d told the truth that the Night Guild never had much need for the gods, yet the worship of the Thirteen was integral in every aspect of Einari culture.
Warriors swore by the Swordsman or joined the ranks of the Legion of Heroes in service to the god of heroism. The Warrior Priests of Derelana roamed every corner of Einan, delivering holy vengeance in the name of their goddess. The Secret Keepers dedicated their lives to the study of secrets and mysteries of Einan, as their deity—the Mistress, goddess of whispered truths—desired.
The priests of the Apprentice borrowed and loaned coin in the name of the Apprentice, god of fortune. The Illusionist Priests delved into the arts of the human brain and psyche thanks to the BOOK handed down to them by the Illusionist, god of madness, thousands of years ago. Even here in Shalandra, the entire culture revolved around worship of the Long Keeper, god of death.
Yet to find it was all a lie proved unsettling. Kodyn had plenty of experience with myths and legends—the tales of his mother’s exploits had been blown far out of proportion over her years as Guild Master—but he still wrestled with the idea that mankind had been so wrong about so much for so long.
“So,” Briana’s words snapped him back to reality, “if the Serenii died out five thousand years ago, how does Hailen have their blood?”
“There are people on Einan that are descended from the Serenii,” Evren replied, “called the Elivasti. They—”
“They are real?” Briana’s eyebrows shot up. “My father always insisted they were more than just legends from long ago.”
Evren nodded. “Look at Hailen’s eyes.”
“Evren!” Hailen protested.
“It’s the best way to prove it,” Evren told the younger boy.
After a long moment, Hailen sighed. “Fine.” He picked up the candle from the stone windowsill and held it up to his face. “There, see?”
Kodyn sucked in a breath. “Your eyes, th-they’re—”
Briana gasped. “Purple!”
Hailen nodded. “It’s how you know that I’m a descendant of the Serenii.”
“By the Seven Faces!” Briana breathed and sat back. “All this time, my father believed it was true, that the Serenii had descendants on Einan. The Secret Keepers’ writings spoke of the ‘violet-eyed children of the Serenii’, but to my father’s knowledge, no one had ever found proof of their existence.” A hint of sorrow flashed through her eyes and she gave Hailen a sad smile. “He would have loved to have met and spoken with you.”
Kodyn placed a comforting hand on Briana’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“I’m all right,” she said, her voice tight, and quickly turned away to wipe an errant tear. When she turned back, she once again spoke in a normal tone. “So your blood can activate the Serenii artifacts? All of them?”
Hailen and Evren exchanged glances, then shrugged in tandem. “We don’t really know,” Evren said.
“There’s not a lot of information available on the Serenii,” Hailen continued, “at least, not that we’ve found. I’ve been studying for the last few years with the Cambionari—a sort of sub-group of priests of the Beggar God that have spent the last few thousand years hunting Bucelarii, half-demons like the Hunter—but their knowledge is limited.” His eyes fixed on Briana. “Which is why I was hoping that I could work with you to study your father’s journals and learn what he knows about the Serenii.”
Briana bolted upright. “Of course! He taught me the secret cipher that he used to encrypt his writings, so I could read them.” Again, the sad smile returned. “We both loved the Serenii—their art, their buildings, and the promise of their magic.” Excitement pushed back the sorrow in her eyes. “Magic that you can wield, right, Hailen?”
The young boy nodded. “Yes. I’m what’s called a Melechha, which is a special kind of Elivasti. I somehow have more pure Serenii blood than anyone else. It’s why I can use the Serenii magic when none of the other Elivasti can.”
“You’ve met the Elivasti?” Briana asked, eyes narrowed.
“Yes.” Hailen grinned. “In Kara-ket, and again in Enarium.”
Briana seemed at a loss for words, yet that same eager thrill set her eyes sparkling in the dancing candlelight.
Kodyn had heard of the Hunter’s journey to the Lost City of Enarium from his mother. Stone monsters, demons and their human servants, towers tha
t gathered magical energy—it was the sort of tale he’d loved as a child, and he couldn’t help his fascination.
“Great.” Evren’s guarded expression had returned. “We’ve told you everything you need to know about us. Now it’s time you tell us about you.”
Kodyn exchanged a glance with Aisha and Briana, then nodded. “Our story’s not quite as epic, but once we’re done, I think you’ll find we might actually be able to help each other out.”
Chapter Fourteen
Though Issa and her patrol had left the crowd far behind, the angry shouts and cries still echoed in her mind. They followed her westward along the Way of Chains, pounding in time with her racing heartbeat.
Anger burned in her chest, but it was drowned out by an overwhelming feeling of helplessness. Everyone in Shalandra knew that food stores were limited. The farmlands outside the city barely produced a fraction of what the populace needed to survive. The vast majority of food came from outside the city, imported by the Pharus in exchange for shalanite and Shalandran steel, among other commodities. The Keeper’s Council controlled the rations in the name of the Pharus, and they determined the allotment for each caste. If any one caste received more, another received less. Trying to feed more Mahjuri could simply mean starving the Earaqi.
I can’t just stand by and do nothing! The people of the lower tiers couldn’t survive much longer under these conditions. Between the Azure Rot, the limited water from the Lower Wellspring, and now the lack of food, the situation on the Slave’s Tier was dire. Things on the Cultivator’s Tier weren’t much better.
But what can I do? She, a simple trainee, barely a caste above the people around her. Keeper’s teeth, I can’t even help my grandparents until I’m sworn into the Keeper’s Blades at the Anointing.
Yet Issa was determined that something had to change. She would find a solution…somehow.
The sight of the misery endured by the Mahjuri quickened her pace. She had to finish her patrol, had to get back to guarding Lady Briana, even return to Tannard’s cruelties at the Citadel of Stone. Anything was better than the suffering that surrounded her.
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