“I’ve no objections,” Sherman said. “Not that I think it would matter if I did…”
Kari chuckled again and beheld Eli’s curious stare. He was clearly wondering about her, and she figured if he asked her about it all, she wouldn’t have any real answers for him anyway. It was possible that Sakkrass had somehow healed her through her dreams, but even if that was the case, she didn’t know how to explain that to her friends. Her relationship with Sakkrass was something she was still exploring and defining, and there was a certain part of her that wanted to keep it to herself.
In the end, it didn’t matter: Both Sherman and Eli turned out to be too polite to press her on the issue. Instead, she followed Charles as he led her back to Muireann’s stall.
9
Mandar-Czar
It had taken only a couple of days to get Eli proficient enough to fly to Barcon. His mount, Dougal, was well-trained and needed little direction from a rider to get them to their destination. With Muireann flying with him, it took a great deal of responsibility from Eli’s shoulders.
During those two days, Kari had bonded further with Muireann, and had continued to astound Charles with her proficiency. Fortunately, there’d been no more mishaps, and in two short days, her injuries had healed completely. Eli never pressed her for details, satisfied that she was well and that the mission would continue as planned. Kari had received no more clarity from Sakkrass over whether he’d healed her, and the lucid dreams hadn’t returned.
Markus had flown ahead with Sherman and Katarina, taking a few days’ head start so they would already be in Barcon and enacting Kari’s plan when she and Eli arrived. The earl had assured Kari that arriving on griffons wouldn’t be unusual, and that Earl Southwick likely wouldn’t make any connection between Markus’ arrival and Kari’s own. Markus’ family was well-known for lending the wings of their magnificent mounts to needy parties, and he’d assured Kari that a demonhunter asking for a griffon to get her speedily to those in need would arouse little suspicion.
With the paladins having taken a head start, Kari and Eli flew their griffons with purpose. Kari needed to get to Barcon as soon as possible to try to put an end to the killings, and arriving weeks ahead of schedule would have to impress even Lord Black. When evenings fell, Kari and Eli released their mounts to hunt, to better get the nutrition they needed under the taxing weight of riders. The griffons possessed incredibly keen eyesight even in darkness, and never had an issue returning to Kari and Eli once their hunger was sated.
Charles had explained that the griffons normally hunted horses, but after being trained, they preyed upon different beasts: deer, usually, or plains herbivores. He’d told Kari and Eli to avoid farmland and livestock, and that the griffons would find their own food without eating someone’s property or attacking other mounted travelers. Kari and Eli made sure to stay mainly on the south side of the great river to avoid the farmlands, as directed.
Their path followed the river inland toward the great lake and the swamplands of the czarikk territory, called Mandar-Czar. Eli had mentioned over dinner one evening that he’d been to Mandar-Czar on a handful of occasions while working for Jason Bosimar and the Demonhunter Order. He and his companions had rooted out some serilian demons that were harassing the lizard-folk. The half-corlyps said he’d found the czarikk likeable enough, and told Kari that those of Mandar-Czar were sulrassa czarikk: Those of a more reptilian heritage. While bipedal, the sulrassa were slightly less humanoid, though they were no less intelligent or personable than their mulrassa cousins.
Kari was interested to hear more about what work Eli and his friends had done in Mandar-Czar, but he’d been fairly tight-lipped about it initially. On the other hand, it didn’t take much convincing to get Eli to agree to take her into the heart of Mandar-Czar.
Over the previous three years, Kari had found that she genuinely missed being among the lizard-folk, and she was looking forward to meeting another tribe of them. She spent a couple of nights asking Eli about the tribe and what they were like, and the half-corlyps was rather blunt about his feelings, as he was with many other things. While he found czarikk strange and thought they smelled funny, he admired their simplicity, honesty, and hospitality. He further told Kari matter-of-factly that he thought the earl and the other nobles of the southern provinces could take a few lessons from the lizard-folk on those things.
“So, Jason sent you to help the czarikk?” Kari prodded while they shared a meal, about a day’s journey from the edge of czarikk territory. The plains were quiet in the cool air of the spring night, and even from a distance, Kari and Eli could hear the rush of the river as it sped toward the east coast. They had a little fire going, and the griffons lay curled a short distance from the flames and allowed their trusted riders to lie back against them.
“Not exactly,” Eli said. “It’s a long story, and has to do with our work for Bosimar that I shouldn’t really tell you about. After we’re done in Barcon I can tell you about it, but it’s just going to be a distraction if I tell you now.”
“Eli… what if you don’t survive our trip to Barcon?” Kari asked, and he seemed genuinely surprised that she would be so blunt about the possibility. She could see he took her words partially as an insult, but another part of him was giving credence to the question. “I don’t mean to be rude, Eli, but if you don’t make it out of there alive, I’ll be in the same position I was before I came to see you. And if I don’t make it out of there, I’m going to need you to promise to go tell Lord Allerius everything you know.”
“Allerius is in charge now? I’d wondered what happened after Bosimar was killed,” Eli mused, looking off into the darkness. “I could still hardly believe it when I heard that Jason was dead. I know it’s far from the truth, but the perception has always been that the Avatar of Vengeance is damn-near impossible to kill.”
Kari had heard that one before, though never from any hunter beyond the cadet stage. She gave a noncommittal shrug. “Turik Jalar was the only one to ever die of old age.”
Eli turned back to her, eyes searching, but he brought the conversation back to the topic at hand. “Allerius was a good hunter; I’m sure he makes a good head for the Order,” he said. He could see that Kari was curious about his interactions with her friend, so he elaborated a little. “A lot of the work we did was based out of or around DarkWind, so we spent a good amount of time on or near the Order’s campus. Allerius was a high-ranked hunter even then, and in the absence of Bosimar, he usually carried out the orders of the head priest—Master Bennet, if I remember correctly.”
Kari nodded but didn’t interrupt, and Eli continued, “Allerius was the one who helped us get reinstated after we had this… falling out with the Order. We had a situation after we dealt with Cyrus Tevor, the bandit lord who was in possession of Turik Jalar’s armor, whether or not he had anything to do with its theft. Some of the members of our group felt that the loot we’d taken from Tevor’s stronghold was ours to do with as we pleased, and that Jalar’s armor was the only thing we had to turn over. The Order… disagreed.” He shifted to bring one knee up toward his chest and laid his hands atop it. “Tevor and his brigands had been preying upon merchant caravans, farmers, adventurers, and unprotected riders for well over a year, at least. The amount of stuff he had in his stronghold was considerable.”