“What about once you’ve killed Turillia?” Deirdre asked. “Would Emma not be free to kill you then?”
“Emma is an observer,” Eli answered. “As much as the opposite might seem to be true, she generally tries to avoid notice, either from Kari’s Order or from the other demon kings. If she can get Kari to kill Turillia for her, her hands are clean. If killing Kari was her goal or even just an option, she probably could’ve and would’ve by now—and Turillia, too.”
“This feels too risky,” Katarina commented, “though I see no other promising option.”
“What would you have me do?” Marshal Saracht asked at last.
Kari met the human’s unblinking gaze. “Have your men patrol the streets normally,” she said. “This has to feel natural, or Turillia will know it’s a trap. If there’s too many of your men in the area, she’ll know, but at the same time, if there are no guards in the area, she’ll get suspicious. Whatever your normal patrol routes have been since the murders started, keep your men to them.”
“And what of Lord Black? If the demon is in possession of him, then it will undoubtedly try to aid Turillia,” the marshal added.
“It can’t,” Kari said with a dismissive gesture. “If it wants to keep up appearances, it can’t let Turillia feed off of it while it’s in possession of Lord Black. All this talk about Emma’s blood being the seal leads me to believe she’s not drawing power from the demon by carnality; she’s taking it from the blood of whoever it’s in possession of. So, if the demon plans to keep up the ruse of being Lord Black, it can’t walk around with bite wounds all over his neck.”
“That makes sense, but at the same time, what if it doesn’t care about keeping up the appearance?” Saracht countered.
“You have to understand something: It’s a demon. It’s not here to make Turillia stronger or help her become a goddess. To the demon, Turillia is a plaything, just like the rest of us. It has the means to take over an entire city and county and spread death and misery; what little amusement it gets from Turillia has got to be less of a priority to it than that. It’s not going to risk this wonderful opportunity it’s found just to have some fun with a succubus, and especially not to make that succubus more powerful than itself.”
“So, what do you want me to do?”
“Stay by Lord Black’s side but let him get away from you when the demon wants to go see Turillia,” Kari instructed. “After that, just try to act like you normally would. Tell him about some backup plan you have in case I fail; anything to keep his mind—or rather, his body—in that tower and away from the battle. Once Turillia is disposed of, we can try to drive the demon out of the earl and the city, once and for all. But for now, we need to keep it contained, and deal with one problem at a time.”
“As you wish,” Saracht said with a bow of his head.
“Master Vlad, that means we’re going to need as much help as we can get after the battle, to drive the demon out of Lord Black and banish it,” Kari said.
“Then I will prepare my fellow priests to do so while you do battle,” he answered.
“Does anyone have any other questions or suggestions?” Kari asked.
“Once I have taken my leave of Lord Black, I will be available to help you as well,” Markus offered. “How may I be of assistance?”
Kari thought to herself for a minute. There was one thing about her plan that she wanted to alter. “How do you feel about landing your griffon on the roof of the old city hall?”
“You want me to come in through the bell tower to aid you?” he guessed.
“I can cut off Turillia’s escape on the ground floor, but there’s a chance she can get up to the bell tower and either chase Emma out that way, or just escape that way,” Kari explained. “If you’re up there and can project an aura the way Katarina did last night, you can help keep her pinned in the building so I can kill her. Plus, your aura might drive off Emma, or at least make sure she doesn’t enter the fray.”
“I believe I can do that for you,” Markus said. “You said you wished Emma captured and not killed, correct?”
“Preferably,” Kari answered. Was Markus really thinking about engaging the mallasti girl in combat? It was possible his aura would shrug off her magic—Kari guessed it was a lot stronger than Katarina’s—and that might allow him to subdue Emma. If it didn’t, though, he would find himself face to face with his deity in a hurry. Kari left it in Markus’ hands; he’d know his own limitations better than Kari did.
“That leaves just one question: When?” Marshal Saracht asked.
“The night after tomorrow,” Kari said. “That’s when I’ll be telling Lord Black that I plan to go after Emma. Worse comes to worst, if the demon doesn’t take that information straight to Turillia, we’re in the same position we are now. But if it does, we can finally end this. That’s all; thank you all for coming, and for your help.”
The others exchanged farewells and made their egress. That left only Kari and Eli at the table. The confident nod he gave her when their eyes met said he was satisfied with her plan. That was comforting. He’d been through many similar situations while working for Bosimar, so if he was satisfied with Kari’s plan, then she had to believe she’d addressed nearly every possibility. She realized she was lucky to have met so many good, helpful people along the way. Trying to go through with this plan with just herself, Katarina, and Sherman would likely have turned out disastrous.
Got to make sure I’m better prepared in the future, though…
Kari lay in bed, considering the entire situation before her. There was something about Emma’s presence that still didn’t make sense, but was she being paranoid, or was she missing something? Their initial assumption was that Turillia might be feeding a portal or some other form of dark magic, and that was what had drawn Emma to the city. With the information Master Vlad, Sherman, and Sharyn had uncovered, though, they realized that Turillia was feeding the demon and feeding off of it in turn, that Emma’s blood would act as a seal, and that Turillia’s intent was to become a demon king at least, or possibly even a goddess.
The trouble is, Emma’s presence doesn’t make sense in either scenario, she thought. If Emma is a master of the arcane, how could Dominick recognize that the murders weren’t ritual sacrifice or for powering a portal, and yet Emma didn’t?
Emma was familiar with Sheila DarkStorm’s methodology and had recognized that the entire situation in Barcon was a trap. Did Emma realize that before or after arriving in Barcon? Was it possible she’d learned all of it after the fact, just as Kari and her companions had? Emma was a master manipulator, so Kari found it hard to believe she was being outfoxed by the assassin; such would mean that Emma was, in reality, quite foolish.
I have a feeling her presense is all but unrelated to Turillia’s work; like she’s here now to continue her search for Salvation’s Dawn. And if I’m Salvation’s Dawn…
Kari remembered the way Dominick had looked at her when his arcane seal passed over her. Had he sensed that she was under the effects of a Blood Oath, or did he perhaps sense that she was Salvation’s Dawn? She wasn’t sure. Dominick seemed to know a bit about the Temple and Salvation’s Dawn, so if she was, why hadn’t he said anything? It was possible that was what he’d detected, and like Eli, he didn’t want to distract Kari from her more pressing goal.