Chapter 176: Flare in the Night
I flew so fast that the air felt thick against me, and the bubble of wind I’d created heated of its own accord. Astrye at night looked peaceful, almost cozy. From within nearby trees, I could see the lights of new watchtowers, and the castle had a scaffold near the hole I’d punched in its outer wall.
Duchess Kapel had grown colder over the remarkably short flight, but Paladin Warren hadn’t stopped his ministrations, head firmly tilted away from the terrain rushing by.
Flying straight for my and Seyari’s chambers, I barely remembered to slow down in time and touched down noisily on the balcony, dismissing my wings. Moments later, Seyari in a backless nightgown burst through the door, shifting sideways and tucking her wings to fit.
For a moment, I stared. It’d only been a couple weeks, but I felt acutely just how much I’d missed her. With no free hands, I offered the best smile I could give under somber circumstances.
“She’s been poisoned—demonic poison. Paladin Warren—” I shifted the paladin in my lower arms “—can’t heal her completely.”
Before she replied, Seyari strutted up to me, grabbed a shoulder to bend me down and to the side, and planted a quick kiss right on my lips—it tingled with her magic.
My wife frowned as she pulled back. “You brought a paladin here?” she hissed, nevertheless bringing up her hands as she started to glow with magic.
Damn, I’d missed her voice. But, this was no time to mess around.
“He grabbed my ankle, and I wasn’t going to kick him off.” I watched her get to work, and set the paladin down.
Gareth Warren wobbled on his feet, leaning heavily against the railing.
“That hasn’t stopped you before.” Seyari carefully took Duchess Kapel from me, laying the woman down on the balcony carefully. I didn’t miss how her hand lingered on mine.
“He wasn’t trying to kill me, Sey. He was trying to make sure I didn’t kill her. And before you ask, there’s a difference.”
“W-warm,” Paladin Warren stuttered, holding his head. “Should get inside where it’s warm.”
I snapped my fingers, and in a near-instant a warm cocoon of wind enveloped the four of us. “Better?”
The paladin nodded, sunk down to sit on the frigid stone, and leaned up against the railing. “For her… not me.”
Seyari glanced at him, then back at me. “Sure there’s a difference, Renna. How fast did you fly?”
“I got here from Norgath in about an hour.”
Mid-way through turning back to her patient, Seyari whistled. “Norgath? I’m surprised either of them lived.”
“Hey! I used wind magic and shielded us!”
“Fair point, I guess. Now shut it and let me work.”
I shut it, and I let her work. The rapid flight and all the magic I used at the ball had actually made me somewhat tired, so I took a cue from the recovering paladin and plopped down next to him. “She can treat you next, if you need it.”
Paladin Warren scrunched his eyes tight, opened them, and released a held breath. “I’ll be fine…”
He trailed off when he saw my face, and I pouted. “It’s not that different from my human form, is it? Besides the teeth and tongue and horns and eyes… okay, never mind.”
“You’re really a demon.”
“Yep. Thought we’d established this.”
His eyes glowed for a moment, then went pale.
“Saw my aura?”
Paladin Warren swallowed.
“Trust me, I’m not the one you should be worried about.” I cocked a thumb at Seyari. “She is.”
“I can hear you!” my wife hissed through gritted teeth and flicked her wings irritably.
I snorted. “Relax, Paladin Warren. Don’t try to pull one over on me or her and I’ve got nothing against you. In fact, you acted every part the hero tonight. You know that, right?”
That seemed to snap the paladin out of his shock. “Don’t patronize me!”
I held up all four hands placatingly. “Sorry. Honest—I meant only a compliment.”
He stared at my hands and their claws. “What are you?”
“A demon?”
Paladin Warren shook his head. “No, you’re more than ‘just’ a demon.”
“You’re pushing pretty hard having seen my aura.”
“Are you planning to kill me for it?” He sounded tired. “I know I can’t stop you. Whatever you are, you’re not weak to holy magic and you can fly hundreds of kilometers in an hour using magic alone.”
“Fair point, and well made.” I stuck out a hand. “Zarenna Miller, Sovereign of Wrath.”
Paladin Warren made a choking sound and locked up again. I stared down at my hand, then pulled it back. Must’ve been the claws.
Before I could think of the best way to bring him around again, Seyari swore and the glow ceased. “Shit, I can’t fix this—not without seriously crippling her. Or worse. You know I’m no healer by trade.”
“Why not?”
“Less asking and more moving. I need you to carry her while I fly down to the infirmary.”
“We have an infirmary?”
“Ugh, just follow me.” Seyari stood and opened her wings, flicking cinders that hissed on the stone of the balcony. Showoff.
But I didn’t have time to tease her for it. “Who can heal her if you can’t?”
“Our daughter.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, glancing down at the Paladin whom I was pretty sure was still out of sorts. “Seyari, are you sure?”
“You’d have asked anyway, and we literally might not have time to argue the point. Now take her and let’s go. You’re back, you’re wearing a dress I don’t recognize, and I’ve a guess there’s a story I need to hear.” She jumped off, then said in a low voice only I could hear. “More than that, it’s been two weeks and I want to chain your big red ass to the bed and see if we can’t break the floor.”
She hasn’t even asked who this woman is. Sey really has changed.
Next to me, as I scooped up the duchess and leapt over the edge, Paladin Warren mumbled, “Daughter…”
***
Paladin Gareth Warren’s day had gone from bad, to worse, to just…
He didn’t have the words. He literally couldn’t form coherent thoughts about what he’d seen and experienced these past few hours. First off, he’d learned that he certainly wasn’t afraid of heights, and second, he’d seen Astrye for the first time.
Beyond that, everything was a mess. The demon, whose true form he had now seen, had a red-winged wife who looked for all the world to be an angel. Her magic had been holy, too—pure and uncorrupted.
None of this makes any sense.
Gareth always thought of himself as an open-minded sort of fellow. The kind who was accepting of Edath’s autonomy, who’d condemned the bloodshed of the civil war. The kind who was happy to see the recent push to end the stigma against demon-blooded folks. The kind who’d literally volunteer at orphanages on many of his rare days free of other duties.
From this, he’d learned over and over that the truth would always come out sooner or later, but that “later” was ill-defined. Slowly, Gareth pulled himself to his feet, keenly aware he was on the castle’s highest balcony, as the warmth of the demon’s—of Marchioness Zarenna Miller’s—magic faded away against the chill of the night wind.
Above, a slender moon and glittering stars cast just enough light to see by. He could see a spartan bedroom inside the open door, its heat quickly escaping even as the coals in the hearth glowed feebly. Further inside, the ghost of a four-poster bed draped in fabric tempted his tired mind.
Part of him wanted to take this chance to go in there, to tear the place apart looking for evidence of the Marchioness’s true side.
Warren shook his head, suddenly mortified. What other thing he’d learned was that it was no good to search for evidence you wanted in defiance of the evidence you didn’t. Marchioness Miller hadn’t been lying about her wife’s abilities, or of trying to heal the duchess—whom she must know was allied very strongly with the Church of Dhias.
Neither had she taken the perfect opportunity to get rid of him. He’d clung to her ankle—ending his life and getting away with it would simply have been as easy as claiming he’d fallen off. More than that, she’d left him alone in her private sanctum.
To ignore all that and make a mess of her chambers just to try to find some dirty secret… well, it wasn’t in line with Dhias’s teachings.
In fact, Paladin Warren only had a single point against the woman, and that was how she’d been evasive about her nature. Which, truthfully…
Gareth played the conversation back in his mind, searching still.
She’d never claimed not to be a demon directly.
And it wasn’t like the marchioness hadn’t been backed into a corner—she absolutely had. More than that, Zarenna Miller was a demonic sovereign. Sure, Paladin Warren had never seen one’s aura before and didn’t have training to tell, but nobody did. Because no one who met one of the incredibly elusive beings lived to tell—or to remember.
The only logical conclusion, then, was… well there were two. Either she was playing a very long game with very high stakes, or she legitimately wanted to help the duchess out of the kindness of her demonic heart.
Perhaps both. Perhaps Marchioness Miller needed human allies.
Paladin Warren could feel a headache building that the cold did little to soothe. Surely, she wouldn’t mind if he stepped inside and closed the door, staying away from her things?
He’d taken a single leaden step towards the open door when a flash of light caught in his peripheral vision. A flare had gone up over the forest south of the city. Then another.
***
The flight down was short, and we stole through a snow-blanketed courtyard and into the main doors. The foyer already looked lived-in, swept, and repaired. Seyari turned quickly down a hallway and I followed.
We ran through the castle’s twisting hallways, footfalls echoing off cold, bare stone, and I wished Seyari was just a bit faster. Fresh repairs dotted the walls, and I twisted around rickety scaffolding as we ran past doors broken, missing, and whole. The few people up at this hour darted to the sides and let us through.
Servants, workers, militia. I’ll need to learn a lot of faces and names in short order.
Around a corner and past what I knew to be a barracks, Seyari threw open a door and ducked inside. I followed, mirroring her motion to get my horns under the freshly-repaired doorframe. Inside, was what looked like a cross between dormitory and hospital. A long room with fresh plaster and no external windows, it was lit dimly by lamps of crimson-tinged fire. Seyari’s work, most likely.
The beds were mostly empty, a mismatch of patchwork quilts and uneven sheets neatly and cleanly made. The few that were occupied held a mixture of human and lupael patients, all (formerly) asleep save two.
Those were a demon-blooded man talking quietly to another lupael man, propped up on pillows. Beside the pair, asleep on a stool with her arms folded over her stomach, was my daughter, Joisse. In human form, the dark-haired teenager was snoring lightly.
Sey, how could you let our daughter sleep in a chair down here!
“Believe me, I’ve tried to get Joisse to leave,” Seyari hissed, predicting and preempting a glare from me. “Set her down in the bed nearby; I’ll wake our daughter.”
My footfalls echoed in the space. We really need some decorations in here. Or windows—but it’s probably an interior room.
I’d lain Duchess Kapel down on the rough blanket before my mind caught up with my body. “Wait, you can’t mean… you know. Right?”
“I can and I do.” Seyari softly shook Joisse’s shoulder, and our daughter startled awake.
“Mom Sey?”
“Joisse, there’s someone that needs help,” Seyari dropped her voice and launched into a quick explanation.
I bit my lip as Seyari whispered to our daughter, and my eyes caught the propped-up man’s. Gears started to turn in my head. “Did… did Joisse heal you?”
Fear flashed through the man’s eyes, before he seemed to recognize me and realize that I wasn’t just any demon. “Aye. I’d be dead otherwise.” He glanced down at the man beside him and I now realized the crouching man was asleep, hand firmly gripped around the demon-blooded’s as he lay propped against the bed.
“Who else knows?” I noticed other patients looking my way and tried to make my words quiet.
“Don’t know. Haven’t been out of this room yet. But I haven’t told anyone except my partner, and he’s been with me.”
“Some of the patients know,” Joisse answered, getting up quickly.
She wobbled, and I caught her. “You need to rest! Don’t push yourself!”
“I’m fine! Just been sitting a while, that’s all.”
Seyari pushed the stool under our daughter, next to the bed. “Sit if you need to then, but after this, you are going to rest. In a bed.”
Joisse nodded. “Yes, Mom.” Her hands started to glow over Duchess Kapel, and her eyes went wide. “What’s happened to her?”
“Demonic poison,” I answered, shifting to the side to let Seyari move past me.
The angelic woman darted from bed to bed, whispering reassurances to the few patients who’d woken up, and checking on those who hadn’t.
“I… that makes sense, I think,” Joisse answered. “I might be able to heal her, but she’s going to be changed.”
Well, shit. “Think we could wake her up, get her consent?”
My demon daughter shook her head. “I don’t think so—she’s… she’s barely clinging on.”
The words, “then go” had hardly left my mouth before Joisse’s magic flooded over Duchess Kapel.
Our daughter didn’t have the raw power Seyari did, but she did have finesse. I was reminded, painfully, of Lorelei working on Markus. She’s got a real talent here.
Pride warred with fear, fear of exposing Joisse to the world. A quick glance behind me at the propped-up man whose eyes had slipped peacefully closed, his chest rising and falling evenly, gave me my answer.
I’d support whichever choice Joisse made.
That wouldn’t mean I couldn’t be anxious about it. Or that I couldn’t threaten fire and brimstone against anyone who sought to villainize my daughter’s magic. With trepidation, I tried to look past the glow at what was going on, keeping an eye on my daughter’s face all the while. Joisse wore a mask of focused concentration, brows close and mouth taut.
Carefully, I slipped my tail around her; she stiffened, then I felt her relax just a little bit.
Seyari had just returned when Taava of all people darted in through the still-open door. The kazzel took a deep breath, then stopped when she looked at Joisse and the duchess.
Instead of a shout, she spoke in a hurried whisper. “We’re gettin’ attacked! Both towers in the south pass sent up flares then went quiet. Doubt it’s a false alarm.” She clapped me on the shoulders. “Glad ta have ya back boss—‘cause we’re probably gonna need ya.”
South pass?
Seyari quickly stood up. “Renna, follow me. Taava, get Nelys to help defend the castle, in case anything slips through, then fill Nadya in to make sure the town’s ready—thought they should have seen the flares, too. Renna and I will take the front, see if we can’t break this attack ourselves. Anything get through, send up a signal and one of us will fly right over.
Got it?”
“Gotcha, Boss Two.” Taava gave a tilted smile and padded quickly out of the room.
Seyari’s eye twitched, and she made a rude gesture at the kazzel’s retreating tail. Moments later, she darted for the door. I dared a glance at Joisse.
“Go, Mom,” she said, voice tense.
With a quick nod, I went, following the sound of Seyari’s footsteps as I caught up to her. She left out the nearest window and took flight. I squeezed my way out after her, dropping the five or so meters to the ground before taking to the air with a running start.
The forest south of us didn’t look off in any way, simply still and quiet in the night. If anything, that only made me more worried.