“It makes sense, though,” Kari muttered. She shrugged. “I guess we’ll get it all sorted out when we meet with Black.”
The guards at the stable square gateway didn’t halt or even question them. Virtually anyone was welcome to stay at its inn, located outside the city proper. The guards directed Kari and Eli to a special stable reserved for the flying mounts, to keep them separate from the horse population. Kari made sure to let the stable master know that the griffons were on loan from Earl Lajere, and he assured her that they received the earl’s griffons fairly often and would tend to them carefully. The truth of his words was evident when he not only handled them expertly, but even called the mounts by name as he put them into neighboring stalls.
Kari and Eli made it halfway to the inn before they were approached by a human flanked by two rir guards. The human was dressed in a black suit with a white, buttoned-up shirt, a vest, and several gold chains draped across the front. He wore a wide-brimmed hat of matching color, and wire-framed spectacles over a clean-shaven, angular face. Curiously, he was completely unarmed, which explained the presence of the two chain-armored terra-rir men. The guards wore tabards depicting the county’s standard: A black heart on a red field. The human’s black boots kicked up bits of mud from the earlier rain as he approached and came to a stop before them.
“You are Lady Karian Vanador?” the human asked, though he lacked the accent common to the south. His accent was closer to that of the northern heartlands around the city of Gnarr.
“Sword of the Heavens, by Zalkar’s grace,” she completed in answer.
“I am Marshal Saracht, and I am in charge of Earl Southwick’s guards and the security of the city of Barcon. Who is your companion?” he prompted. “I trust you are aware that Lord Black does not allow half-demons in his city.”
Kari gestured toward the half-corlyps. “This is Elias Sorivar; I’ve deputized him to help me with Lord Black’s request,” she answered, and noted that the marshal seemed quite surprised. “I know Lord Black normally doesn’t like half-demons in the city—your guards have tried to deny me access before because they thought I was half demon—but with the work before me, I think Lord Black can make an exception.”
The human said nothing, holding them under his appraising stare for a minute before he nodded toward Kari. “Well, that will be for him to decide,” the marshal said. “For the time being, I will allow Mr. Sorivar to accompany us to Lord Black’s tower.”
Eli shrugged.
Rather than make any sort of fuss with a man who had little power to make a decision on the matter, Kari fell into step with the marshal and his guards.
The trip to Black’s tower wasn’t a long one, and Kari recalled the last time she’d walked these streets. Barcon looked the same to her on the inside, and the feeling she’d had that it was a hungry beast waiting to devour her gradually subsided. She viewed the city’s interior in a slightly more positive light after living in DarkWind for several years. While she preferred the city of DarkWind, she reminded herself that it, too, had a resident assassin’s guild. She’d seen its darker parts and was well aware that it had many of the same problems Barcon did.
She trusted the Duke of Brunswick more—after all, he was Jason Bosimar’s father—but as she thought about his inability or unwillingness to root out the Blood Order, she wasn’t sure he was much better than Earl Southwick. Ultimately, it didn’t matter; she would never live in Barcon, and she honestly felt sorry for many of those who did, whether by choice or not.
Eli followed along, and Kari saw that the half-corlyps was checking the alleys and the shadows warily, the same way Aeligos would. With her thoughts wandering, she was glad one of them was paying attention to their surroundings.
The guards outside the earl’s ebon tower saluted the marshal as he escorted Kari and Eli inside. The interior was spacious with its rounded architecture, and it was apparent that Kaelin Black was wealthy. The walls were plastered over so the cracks and seams in the stonework were completely hidden, painted white to contrast with the black exterior. The ground floor was decorated heavily with expensive hand-woven rugs, tapestries, and paintings, and there were a few bookshelves with reading material for those waiting to see the earl. The furniture was all polished mahogany, another testament to both the earl’s wealth and his fine taste in luxuries. The marshal gestured for Kari and Eli to take seats near the fireplace to drive out the chill.
Kari stared curiously at the painting of Kaelin Black that hung over the mantel. There was something different about him in the painting, though she couldn’t put her finger on it. He was no more or less handsome—and he was certainly handsome, much as Kari loathed admitting it—and even the white tunic with black trousers he wore in the painting didn’t account for the difference.
It was more the expression on his face: he looked somehow younger in the painting, but it wasn’t the smoothness of his features that made it appear so. All Kari could think was that there seemed to be less on his mind as he was depicted, and the ease of spirit showed through in what she would’ve almost characterized as a smile and a posture that spoke of contentment. Black had come across as obnoxious and grizzled when she’d met him, and he didn’t seem happy regardless of the wealth or power he possessed.
What changed? Or has he just lived too long?
The room was quiet once Marshal Saracht went up the staircase that wound up the outer wall, and Kari turned to Eli. “Did you and your friends ever do any work down here in Barcon?”
“You mean did we work with Kaelin Black at any point?” he returned, and then shook his head. “No. We passed through the city a time or two—which was a feat, since they don't like my kind—but once we started working for your Order full-time, like I said, we avoided getting wrapped up in politics. Bosimar was careful to keep us out of politics; we had enough issues to deal with without having this baron or that earl decide they either wanted to conscript us or ban us from their cities.”
“So, if you had to guess, any idea why the assassin might have drawn me here?” she asked, but she gave Eli a couple of minutes to think on it. He may not have been an assassin, but he’d worked within a guild, which meant he might have insight into the why of a kill’s location.
She turned her attention toward some of the other artwork while she waited. A couple of carved ivory pieces caught her eye. They were unlike anything she’d seen before, inscribed with an unfamiliar symbolic writing. She wondered if they were from either the wolf-like luranar or the kwarrasti of Terrassia’s southeastern badlands. She was sure they weren’t czarikk, so barring tribal peoples on other continents, she couldn’t think of who else might’ve made them.
“Hard to say,” Eli said at last, drawing Kari’s gaze back to him. “I wasn’t an assassin, just an enforcer, which means I was more or less just a guard and a thug. So, I wasn’t privy to most of what went on in the Clans. I have to wonder if the Black Dragon Society might be using this succubus to strike a blow at Black. Maybe they’re hoping to manipulate you into killing Black so his blood is on the Order and not on them, and then any claim to the earl’s position will have more validity.”