Kari shook her head. “I think you told me enough to get the point across, but you’re free to tell them whatever else you like when we go see them after supper. Although now that I think about it, are you wrapped up with the Society already?”
Eli waved a hand and shook his head. “No. They know who I am and what I’m up to already. Lord Black’s got some of them among his staff or in his guard, it would seem. They weren’t hostile, and they did talk to me a bit to at least let me know they’re not working with the succubus. But they made it pretty clear that trying to infiltrate them would end with me floating face down in a pond somewhere, and that the earl wouldn’t give a rat’s ass if they did it.”
Kari chuckled. Eli was usually careful in what he said in front of her, but from time to time, shades of his childhood growing up in Oge and DarkWind showed in the way he spoke. She found it amusing, as Ty could be the same way from time to time, and Kari didn’t take offense to it the way her mother-in-law did. Eli was what most would call low-class or even trash, but there was a good man underneath it all, and that meant more to Kari than his language, his etiquette, or his mannerisms.
After all, she hadn’t exactly grown up prim and proper, herself. She briefly recalled what she’d called Mick Jacobs when he apprehended her in Solaris, and a semi-embarrassed grin crept onto her features.
“That’s good, actually,” she said. “We’ll be meeting with the twins, a ranger named Sharyn who’s been helping them, and the marshal over at Zalkar’s church after supper. I didn’t want you to be seen with the marshal if you were trying to work with the Society.”
“No worries there,” he said with a grateful nod. “So, what did you want to tell them?”
“Just about the portal, all the things going on with that,” she said vaguely as several more people filtered into the common room. She began to feel uneasy speaking with the room filling up, and she gave a subtle gesture to drop the subject that Eli easily picked up on.
They finished their dinners in silence and then prepared to go to the church.
Darkness had settled in early in the springtime evening. The high windows of the temple were aglow, and Kari ran her hand through the blue eternal flame that sat on the church’s top step. When Kari realized Eli had stopped following, she turned to face him. He squinted at the blue flame but ran his hand through it the same way Kari had.
"What's that about?" he asked, gesturing over his shoulder with a thumb.
"The eternal flame? They're supposed to let you know if a god is displeased with you. If they're angry with you, it'll burn you—even if you're serilian-rir. Or so I’ve been told." Eli turned to glance at the blue flame once more. When he turned back, Kari smiled and patted his shoulder, and she led him inside.
The Morevilles, Sharyn, Marshal Saracht, and Devin Sanstrom sat near the center of the horseshoe, waiting for Kari and Eli. Among them was another human dressed in a scarlet and purple robe with the cowl up, and from under the hood showed only a wizened face and thin, grey hair. Kari couldn’t tell how old the man was just from looking at him, and guessing was usually a waste of time with those who practiced wizardry. The power of the arcane was known to extend lifetimes, so for all Kari knew, the man could be in his second or third century.
She bowed her head to the stranger, and he returned the gesture, his hawkish eyes taking her in. When Kari reached the central floor, she waited for an introduction.
“Mr. Harrington, may I introduce you to Lady Karian Vanador, Sword of the Heavens,” the marshal said, and the robed elder rose and shook Kari’s offered hand.
“Please, call me Dominick,” he said with the barest of smiles. “How may I be of service, my lady?”
“Well, let me make sure everyone knows what’s been going on so far,” Kari said. She nudged Eli gently and gestured toward the benches.
Once he and Dominick were seated, Kari started the tale from the beginning: when she slew Ressallk on Tsalbrin. Using the gestures she’d picked up from Aeligos over the years, she kept anyone from interrupting the tale, and filled everyone in on the events of the previous few weeks. She made sure to include the details of the killings in DarkWind and the conclusions Aeligos had come to, and then went over the encounter in Lajere, only leaving out the details of her dreams. When her tale came to a close, she asked if there were any questions, and was pleasantly surprised when no one spoke up.
“Now, before we get into last night’s killing and our investigation this morning, I want to let Eli go over some of the details of the plot he and his friends helped stop while working for Jason Bosimar,” she said, and she motioned Eli back beside her.
Judging by his mannerisms, Eli wasn’t comfortable speaking in front of a group. It was amusing that the half-corlyps seemed to have little fear of undead, werewolves, or demons, yet he was intimidated by an audience.
“All right, from what Kari said to me over dinner, I’m guessing she wants me to talk about the portal we encountered before the Apocalypse,” he began. He filled in the details about how the portal was fueled and that it was to usher Sekassus into the world, but he didn’t fill in much more detail than he had when he explained it to Kari. His explanation was complete, though, and the others nodded to show they were following Kari’s line of thinking.
Once Eli finished his tale, Kari spoke again. “Now, this morning I started thinking that maybe BlackWing or someone else we don’t know about yet might have built a portal, and that the succubus might be committing these murders to power it,” Kari said, but she paused when Dominick, the wizard, shook his head.
“Portal magic is very particular with regard to the area,” the elder human explained. “For the life energy of the sacrifices or victims to be drawn to the portal, all of the killings would have to have been committed in its immediate vicinity. While I am not familiar with the marshal’s investigation, I know that the murders have been spread around the entire city, with the exception of the Temple District. Also, the murders you described in DarkWind would have been of no use in such a case.”
Kari bobbed her head in appreciation; they were narrowing down the possibilities. “Good to know,” she said. “As I was going to say, though, that’s what I thought this morning. After we investigated last night’s murder, though, Marshal Saracht came to the conclusion that I’m not the target of this plot; I’m the bait.”
“Bait? For what?” Eli asked on behalf of everyone else.
“Not what… who,” Kari said. “And my suspicion… is Emma.”
“But why would… oh,” Eli replied. “You think this is all set up to look like another portal, to draw Emma here if she wants to sabotage the plans?”
Kari nodded. “Without getting into too much detail,” she explained to the others, “this demoness, a mallasti called Emma, seems to appear whenever a demon king threatens invasion. And in every situation, she seems to do something to either ruin that king’s plan or help someone else ruin it. Thanks to Eli sharing what he did for Bosimar, the tale my mate and his siblings shared on our journey to Tsalbrin, and the information Eryn was able to relay after we beat Gaswell, I think this succubus is faking an invasion to draw Emma out and kill her.”