Shaken up, Kari thought. Yeah, that’s one way of putting it.
“Of course,” she said instead. “Thank you, Lord Black.”
Marshal Saracht guided her toward the door by the elbow, but his manner was delicate. How much did he know? He was always so serious, and Kari wasn’t sure if her cover story that they’d been attacked by the shadow demon got past his suspicious nature. It was strange to be escorted to the inn by a man who was neither well-armed nor armored, but it paled in comparison to the rest of the night’s events.
Was it possible that Kaelin Black was BlackWing and didn’t even realize it? Kari hadn’t seen, heard, or felt anything that suggested the shadow demon had entered the room. She had touched Kaelin Black, and then something had clouded her mind, and more subtly than Ressallk’s attack on Tsalbrin. How quickly the shadow demon had built the false web of memories and emotions! If it wasn’t for the mental exercises Kari had learned from Triela, Kari figured she may have given herself to the demon willingly.
The demon had been inside Lord Black; how much more complicated could this become? Now, Kari faced two possibilities: Either Kaelin Black and BlackWing were the same person and didn’t realize it, or the demon had taken possession of Black due to his own nature once BlackWing was killed. She recalled Devin Sanstrom’s tale of BlackWing attacking the earl in the bazaar, and that divination magic had determined that neither had been an illusion or under some shape-changing magic. It simply didn’t make sense; there was no other explanation she could think of.
She pushed the thoughts aside for the time being. It wasn’t really important how the demon had gotten into Kaelin Black, and neither was the mystery of BlackWing’s and Kaelin’s relationship. What was important was knowing she could no longer trust Kaelin Black at all, and that Markus’ life might be in danger spending any time in the earl’s presence.
I need to speak to Markus, Kari thought. He needs to know what’s going on, or his life will be in serious danger no matter what gains I make.
Would Markus try to arrest Lord Black? Or maybe hold him while they tried to force the demon out? Perhaps Kari could ask him to keep Black bottled up to separate the demon from Turillia. Any one of the three options would work well, though Kari wasn’t sure if arresting Black or forcing the demon out might mean it would seek yet another host.
“Marshal, I need a favor from you, if you would,” she said as they walked toward the inn. “I need to speak to Lord Garant first thing in the morning, but I don’t know where he’s staying. If he comes to Lord Black’s tower, could you ask him to come speak with me right away?”
The marshal squinted at her, and Kari wondered if he was going to report her request to Black. “Yes, of course, my lady,” he said after a moment. “I thought you knew that Lord Garant was staying just up the road from Lord Black’s tower.”
“I trust you, marshal,” Kari said, and his nod was both polite and thankful. “Get your lord a priest of Zalkar; he’s going to need a strong ward to keep that demon at bay.”
“I suspected as much when he requested one,” Marshal Saracht returned. “Though my lord doesn’t particularly like your Order or the churches of your deity, he’s not so stubborn as to refuse help he truly needs. I will do as you ask.”
Kari bid the marshal farewell once he delivered her safely to the front door of One Small Favor. She watched him until he headed into Zalkar’s church, and then she decided she should follow her own orders and try to get a good night’s rest.
Easier said than done after what just happened…
She entered her room and found Eli there. She’d never been so thankful for his presence, but he might be the only thing that let her sleep soundly. He was lying in his bedding but not asleep, and he looked up with a smile when Kari entered.
Kari closed the door and put her back to it. “I need a favor from you. I need you to stay with me tonight.”
Eli’s eyes went wide for a moment, but then he sprang to his feet. He was dressed in his loincloth and sleeveless shirt as usual. He ran his hand down the length of Kari’s jaw and stifled a sigh. “I understand,” he said. “If you want to talk about it, just let me know.”
Kari didn’t answer. She simply hugged him, and Eli returned the embrace.
It was a shame anyone else had gone through a childhood anything like hers, but in that moment, the way Eli held her… she was thankful she’d met someone who understood.
18
The Unyielding
Kari woke up with the tolling of the bell at the fifth hour. It was something she hadn’t done in a couple of years, even after all the complications that followed Little Gray’s birth. Eli was still sound asleep beside her in the bed. Eli had acted like a security blanket for her and was a perfect gentleman. He wore his loincloth and tunic to bed and kept his hands to himself throughout the night, lending comfort through his presence.
Kari smiled at him and sat up in the bed. Eli stirred but didn’t wake, so Kari, still dressed in her undergarments, made her way downstairs to the bath chamber. The room was dimly lit by the embers of last night’s fire, so Kari put some fresh wood in and stoked it until the logs started to burn. She fixed herself a hot bath to avoid disturbing Alyssa and Chelsea’s sleep, and took advantage of the early hour by washing her padded clothes. Once her clothes were hung by the fire to dry, Kari settled into the steamy bathtub and tried to relax.
Her arms still tingled where Kaelin Black had grabbed her. She twitched every time the feeling of being slammed on his desk crossed her mind. She was sure the demon had been in full control of him, and there was no doubt what its intentions had been. That didn’t explain how the demon had gotten into him without notice, and Kari reconsidered the possibility Kaelin Black and BlackWing were the same person.
But all the evidence says otherwise, she thought. Numerous people have seen them fight each other, and even divination magic said that they were distinct individuals, neither illusioned nor shape-changed. Unless Kaelin Black can be in two places at once, they can’t be the same person.
Kari wondered if Dominick might know of any arcane magic that would allow such a thing, and in such a way that it would fool divinations. BlackWing being identical to Kaelin Black by chance, without shape-shifting magic, seemed impossible, unless they were brothers or even twins. Twins were unheard of among the rir—even the serilian-rir—so Kari cast that possibility aside. But was it possible they were long-lost brothers? Kaelin had said BlackWing entered his life close to sixty years earlier, but that didn’t mean the assassin hadn’t lived and operated elsewhere before then. And such a thing might go a long way in explaining why Kaelin Black was so despised.
I wonder who his father was… wait, could Black and BlackWing be father and son? And if so, which is which?
Part of her thought they had done more harm than good by killing BlackWing and forcing the demon to find a new host. At the same time, it might be easier to contain the demon now: If it stayed in Lord Black, then Markus could keep the resident earl busy and prevent the demon from causing havoc. Without her demon to feed and feed off of, Turillia’s power would diminish at an increasing rate, and Kari would be able to fight her in a contest of steel.