“Why don’t they just abandon his service once they get here?”
“Their families would pay the ultimate price for that betrayal,” Danilynn answered with a shake of her head. She fixed her wayward strands of hair and continued, “That’s why Se’sasha wasn’t allowed to accompany her mother during the invasion. Sekassus keeps their kin close to him, so they can be slain in case of betrayal.”
“But by that logic, wouldn’t Se’sasha already be dead?”
“No. Se’sasha was daughter of the high priestess. Sekassus wouldn’t kill her because it would break the lineage of the high priestesses. If he holds her prisoner, and has decided to kill Se’sasha, she would be allowed to live long enough to be mated and produce a female heir. After that, he would likely execute her. By my best guess, Se’sasha should be nearly or slightly older than eighteen years by now, so time is growing short. If we intend to honor our promise to Se’ceria, then we must move soon.”
Kari crossed one leg over the other and bobbed her foot in the air. “So that brings us back to my original question: What do you think Se’sasha’s intentions will be if we rescue her and bring her back here? Will she still be enslaved to Sekassus because he holds her family hostage? Or would she help us work against him?”
“It will depend on how much like her mother she turns out to be, but if Sekassus has been holding her prisoner with the intention of breeding and then murdering her…,” Danilynn said.
“Did Se’ceria ever tell you what god she worshipped?” Kari pressed.
“No, other than to call her the Great Mother,” Danilynn answered. “There is a nearly endless number of deities on many worlds referred to that way, but I have never found the one whose holy symbol matches the one Se’ceria was wearing when she died. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”
“And you two are sure that neither Great Mother nor that symbol she wore refers to King Koursturaux?”
“Positive,” Eli said.
Danilynn nodded. “King Koursturaux is very powerful, but she isn’t a deity and couldn’t have provided Se’ceria with the power to open that portal. At least, not as far as we know. We don’t believe any of the demon kings possess that sort of power except for the two Koryon deities who are also kings: Augrus Tiveron and Sheila Darkstorm.”
“That’s what worries me,” Kari said. “Everything we say is followed by as far as we know. What we know is actually next to nothing. When Turik Jalar was Avatar, he went into the underworld on several occasions, and once even laid a list of demands at the feet of the Overking—again, from what we know. I can’t help wondering why we haven’t continued sending hunters to the underworld to build on what little we know. Being reactionary when it comes to fighting demons is only effective for so long.”
“I’m not asking for an answer right now, but would you consider going to the underworld with me to try to find Se’sasha?” Danilynn asked, though she didn’t wait for an answer. “If we accompany you to DarkWind, we can check with one of our sources of information there, if Eli still has that celestial token she was after.”
Kari drew forth the platinum disk from her purse. “We have it,” she said.
“Good. If we give that to Amastri,” Danilynn said, glancing to Eli for some sign that he’d told Kari of the succubus, “then she may be willing to get us some information. If she can get us good, reliable information and find us someplace safe to cross into the underworld, you can make your decision then. I won’t ask you to walk blindly into the underworld; I’m not willing to do that myself. But if we can get some good information from Amastri, we may be able to do some reconnaissance while we rescue Se’sasha—and whatever we do, we’ll be very quiet and subtle about it.”
“I’ll have to check with the ouncil of the Order first,” Kari said with a shrug. “If they tell me I can’t go, then it won’t matter what we find out from Amastri. We definitely need more information either way. I’ve got a mate and child to think about… I can’t risk my life needlessly, or to rescue what amounts to an enemy.”
“Do you think Tor would go with us? He’s one of them… he might be able to pass among the mallasti and get us more information once we’re there,” Eli said.
“I don’t know that I’d want him to take that risk,” Danilynn said. “He’s only half-mallasti, and he’s never lived among them, so he’d probably be discovered pretty easily. If anything happens to him, remember, we may have a vengeful Emma to deal with.”
“Your master seemed less-than-thrilled to see us,” Kari said to the priestess. “Is he going to object to you leaving the temple to go chasing old promises and adventures?”
“He can object all he likes,” Danilynn said bluntly. “I serve Garra Ktarra, and as far as he and I are concerned, this is unfinished business.”
“All right, then,” Kari said. “I’ll go with you to speak with Amastri, but I won’t promise anything in regard to either going to the underworld or letting Amastri stay in DarkWind. I’m not sure what I find more disturbing, the number of underworld spies we have in our midst, or the fact that the Order has known for decades and done nothing about them.”
“Jason was very particular about who he trusted and who he simply tolerated,” the priestess said. “Amastri was among those he tolerated, because now and then she could prove to be a valuable source of information. She was the one who originally told us about the celestial token, which explained why there were numerous syrinthian agents causing trouble in and around DarkWind. She told us what we were looking for, and even when she had the opportunity to steal it from us, she didn’t. She said her assignment was to take possession of it if she could do so without causing a stir; she was strictly forbidden from killing for it or drawing any negative or undue attention onto King Koursturaux.”
“Right, she serves Koursturaux, Eli mentioned that,” Kari muttered. “So, I guess it’d be dangerous to just kill her.”
“Exceedingly dangerous,” Danilynn agreed. “In these instances, we must always bear in mind that demons like Amastri are sources of information to us so that they can be sources of information to their masters.”
Kari stood. “Well, I can tell you this much: The council is not going to like this one bit. But if you can get reliable information from Amastri, I’ll discuss the matter with them, and see where they stand. At the very least, I’d like to actually be able to talk to someone from the underworld and try to figure out a lot of what we’ve been missing all these years. If Se’sasha is willing to talk, she could be invaluable to the Order.”
“And I’m sure that’s part of the reason her mother wanted us to go find her,” the priestess agreed, and she stood up. Danilynn looked toward Eli then. “So, you’d be willing to go, too?”
Eli glanced at Kari as he rose. “I told the high priest of Zalkar I’d follow this woman into hell itself. I guess I was being more literal than I thought.”
Danilynn smiled and nodded, and she made her way toward the door to escort her friends back to the temple’s main hall. “Eli wanted to ask you something,” Kari said, drawing the fures-rir woman’s attention to her half-corlyps friend.