Katarina’s words had been true in a literal sense. The demon was sitting right in front of Kari and Markus, and it was impossible to detect but for that chill.
“What can I do for you, Lady Vanador?” Lord Black asked.
“I wanted to let you in on how my investigation is going. How’s your head?” Kari asked. She tried to mask her anxiousness; pulling off this bluff was the key to her entire plan.
Black rubbed the back of his head absently, though there was no indication he felt any pain. “Well enough, I suppose. I have put the marshal and his men at your disposal. You may make all reports to them.”
“I already have, but I wanted to make sure you know what I’m planning in case one or both of us get killed,” Kari returned. “I’m sure the marshal was going to tell you everything anyway, but I figured I owe you the respect of telling you personally.”
Lord Black leaned to the side in his chair, crossed one leg over the other knee, and fixed Kari with an appraising stare. The earl glanced to Lord Garant and his expression softened, but he was suspicious. No amount of playing poker with her in-laws or listening to the way Aeligos so casually prodded into his siblings’ lives could have prepared Kari for this moment, locked in a game of wits with a shadow demon. Kari stuck to her plan, and skipped any further pleasantries to get to the heart of the matter.
“We haven’t had any luck locating Turillia, but we’ve found Emma,” she said. “I know the last time we spoke, I told you Emma is powerful, but we’ve come up with a plan to catch her off-guard, and I have something that should disable her. Once she’s disabled, we can kill her and then focus our efforts on rooting out Turillia.”
“Curious; why not let Emma kill Turillia, as you suggested she is likely trying to do?”
Kari felt the expanse of her silence in heartbeats. Only the crackle of the fire and the tapping of the rain on the large window behind Lord Black broke the stillness. She blinked once and turned her gaze to Lord Garant, who watched her with interest. The demon was suspicious, and Kari realized she wasn’t a good enough bluffer to sell this lie.
Aeligos said the truth is often a better weapon than the biggest web of lies, she thought. That might be the only thing that works.
“If Turillia somehow bests Emma and drinks her blood, she may become as strong as a demon king, or even a minor goddess,” Kari said. “If that happens, I’m not sure my entire Order could bring her down.”
“That’s what this has been all about? Stealing power and then trying to become a demon king?” Lord Black asked, sitting up straight.
Kari wasn’t sure who she was speaking to; the demon was present, but was it in control? She’d told Kaelin Black what Turillia was doing, but the demon had been in him, if not control of him, at the time. Did they share memories? Was the demon able to read Lord Black’s mind, or impart to him what it wanted him to know?
She sighed to stall and gestured toward a chair for permission to sit. Once granted, she moved around Lord Garant to the empty chair while she considered the situation.
Did the shadow demon even know what Turillia was up to, or was this entire scenario a giant game to it? It got death, destruction, mayhem, and personal power from her killings; did it even care what she was taking from it in return? It occurred to Kari that the shadow demon might be planning to take control of Turillia once she sealed all of that power inside herself. If that was its goal, then it would go straight to Turillia once Kari left the tower. If not, and the demon was unaware of Turillia’s ultimate goal, Kari wondered if the demon might feel betrayed and seek to kill the succubus on its own.
“That’s our best theory right now,” Kari said at length, once she was comfortable in the chair. She looked back at Kaelin Black and noticed that his stare had dropped down toward her legs. That had to mean the demon was in control, and clearly still thinking of how close it had come to taking her two nights before. Kari kept her breathing steady and her mind focused on the demon’s destruction. She was more worried that Lord Garant might take offense to its behavior and spoil the trap to attack it now. Fortunately, the paladin kept a level head and stuck to Kari’s plan.
“So where is Emma, then?” Black asked. “I will have an entire squad of my best men meet you there to assist in capturing her.”
Kari shook her head. “No, this has to be a subtle strike, or she’ll sense it coming before we ever get near her. Against the wishes of my friends, I’ve decided to go in alone. As I said, I have something that will help subdue her, and if I’m alone, I think I can get close without provoking her. Your marshal is coming up with a contingency plan if I get killed; you’ll want to talk to him about that later. I know he wasn’t happy when I said so, but you’re both going to have to trust me on this.”
“Who am I to argue with a demonhunter?” Lord Black returned with a slight smile.
Kaelin Black, Earl of Southwick, that’s who, Kari thought.
“I’ve a pretty good idea of Emma’s schedule, and I think tomorrow night will be the ideal time to strike,” she said. “As I already explained to the marshal and my friends, we need to be cautious about spooking her, so we don’t want a lot of people anywhere near the old city hall tomorrow night. At the same time, we don’t want the streets empty, so I’ve asked the marshal to maintain normal patrol routes and schedules in that area. Like I said, it has to be subtle.”
“I understand,” Black said. He rose after a moment and moved to look out the large rear window, and Kari knew he was looking at the old city hall. She wasn’t sure if the demon had taken the bait, but he was sniffing it, and that was as much as she could hope for.
“I have other preparations to make for tomorrow night, so by your leave, Lord Black, I’ll go see to them,” Kari said, rising.
“Yes, of course; do as you must,” he said absently. He turned around after a moment and bowed his head to her, and then gestured toward the door.
“Farewell, Lord Garant; it was nice to see you again,” Kari said, and nodded to him before she made her egress.
Kari shivered involuntarily as she descended the stairs, despite the air growing noticeably warmer once she’d left Black’s office. She still wasn’t sure how much the demon knew of Black’s memories and vice versa, but she was beginning to suspect the demon could only read certain parts of the earl’s mind. It was oblivious to Kari’s relationship with Eli, but then so was the earl. But that the demon didn’t understand the tense relationship between the earl and Kari pointed to its limitations.
Thank the gods for that. If the demon knew everything Lord Black does, this would be damn-near impossible.
Marshal Saracht stood up when Kari reached the main chamber, his eyes questioning when she came to a stop before him. “Has the bait been laid?” he asked.
“I couldn’t have handed it to him any more plainly if I’d punched him in the face with it,” she whispered, wary of her voice carrying up the stairs. “He was suspicious; I had to tell him that Turillia’s plan is to drink Emma’s blood, so dance around the subject if it comes up. As far as he knows, I’m going in alone, and you’re coming up with a contingency plan in case I fail.”