Page 24 of Red Demon
I followed Mahakal, his gait too fluid to be anything but unsettling. I tamped down my bigotry when the word “inhuman” sprang to mind, hating myself a little for thinking like that. He served the queen. Across the bustling street, a sign with a vibrant splash of gold and violet stood out among the weathered white-stone buildings. RYU’S HARMONY TAVERN. Inside, I perused colorful Chaeten-style murals depicting Asri life: families harvesting painted rice paddies, children chasing butterflies across violet-blue skies, the mycelial webs of the Oria bionetwork reaching deep into the earth. On another wall, the gleaming city of Thebos, that even I could tell must have come from an illustration rather than someone who’d seen it first-hand. Still, I appreciated the attempt to make it seem like we all belonged in the same world, even though they couldn’t make us fit on the same wall. Ginger and spices met my nose, and the familiar scent of Asri flatbread. Cushions occupied the space around low Asri tables, topped with spring wildflowers. On the opposite side of the room were a couple of wooden booths with mismatched chairs. I supposed that was the nod to the Chaeten way of doing things. Mahakal led me to an empty booth.
A kind-faced old man with a neatly trimmed auburn beard approached. His green and blue ringed eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled, that smile flickering when he looked at me. “Welcome back, Major! And how lovely to meet your new … recruit.”
“Thank you, Ryu,” Mahakal said. “Two of whatever your Chaeten special is today, please.”
“Ah! Today we’ve had some river-caught trout, spring greens—”
“That will be excellent Ryu, thank you,” Mahakal cut him off with an apologetic smile. Ryu stood firm on exchanging pleasantries, though. He wasn’t satisfied until he had my name along with my drink order, my opinions on the weather, and my plans for the upcoming Rain Festival. Mahakal turned to me with a wry smile as soon as Ryu turned away. “If any man could talk his way out of a battle, it’s Ryu. His skills are underutilized in a place like this.”
“Yeah, he’s nice,” I said, although my mind lingered in a colder and darker place, where the ground rumbled from mining equipment and Mal lay twitching in the snow. I looked up to see Mahakal studying me, and I wilted under his gaze—how similar his features were to the first Chaeten-sa I’d met. To my surprise, Mahakal reached across the table and gave my shoulder a familiar pat, strong and measured. “Don’t be so tense, friend. I can tell you’ve been living rough for a while. But it seems your luck turned around?”
I nodded. “Elder Galen Eirini gave me a job at his forge. He’s the one who told me I should talk to you.”
“Ah. I’m glad you’ve found some stability after your hardship. I hope you can trust that I want to help you in any way I can.”
I blinked. Voids, he was nothing like the Red Demon. I studied his earnest, intelligent gaze. “Thank you, but I’m not looking for charity. I just wanted to tell you what I know, to do the right thing.”
“I recognize that.” Mahakal leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. “You saw her first. That’s why I terrify you, isn’t it? Or is it because you don’t want to be the only Chaeten in a refugee camp?”
I froze, then considered running out the door. But Ryu arrived with the drinks then, and Mahakal smiled as he brought a frothy beer to his lips. My breath hitched.
“Please don’t be afraid.” He set down his glass. “If you told a half-witted priest where you are from—yes, he’d ship you off for breaking past the quarantine line. But I’ll run a blood test in the temple to confirm what I suspect, that you aren’t capable of catching or spreading the South Bend Outbreak: SBO. If you are putting innocent people at risk, well then—” His eyes were on fire.
“I never got sick.” A deep breath calmed my racing heart.
“I trust you. And I’m going to need you to trust me back, Jesse.” Mahakal met my gaze, his jaw hard. “If I don’t have the whole truth, I may not be able to find her. Every fact helps, no matter how small. Hold nothing back. Nothing.”
I frowned. “Okay.”
He studied my expression, unsatisfied. “There’s a reason I named myself Mahakal when I came of age,” the Major said, his tone reflective. “I was off to war, and I needed a symbol the Attiq-ka and their Asri loyalists could understand. They like mythology from forgotten worlds—the more obscure, the better.” He waved his hand in a loop to show what he thought of that. “My name and my raven stand for justice. To those that do evil, I bring death, swift or slow, depending on the crime. Someone with Chaeten code killing their own kind en masse deserves the worst side of me, as do the Asri mages my elite soldiers hunt,” he finished with a solemn nod.
“Justice sounds good.” I felt I could match the intensity he radiated. The world bent around me with an unspoken promise, vengeance simmering in the blaze of Mahakal’s eyes.
“But I also represent peace.” The Major leaned forward. “The righteous, I’ll reward within my sphere of influence, give them power to do more. To the innocent who have suffered, I’ll protect them; give them boons where I can. You are someone that deserves my favor.” Hope sprouted in me like the first flowers in the morning training grounds. I took in a sharp breath. “Let’s create justice together,” Mahakal whispered.
I told him every detail I remembered. He let me speak, eating little when Ryu laid out plates of smoked trout, interrupting to ask exactly where I’d seen her last, and picking apart every detail I knew about the Crofton mine. Questions on the number of diggers and the trucks idling outside kept me focused on the facts, and kept me from falling apart as I relived every horrible detail. “Someone else mentioned ghosts, ruren-sa like in the war,” I said. “You think it’s SBO instead?”
He huffed, then took an angry bite. “Most people repeating these rumors mean no harm, but it’s still ignorance. Some Asri like to pin everything they don’t understand on the dead by default. Not to say I haven’t fought off some ghosts through the years, but the simplest explanation is usually correct.”
“What do you mean?”
He tilted his chin at me, assessing. “Normally I would only share this with those pledged to serve the empire and keep its secrets, so consider this a boon. Will you promise me you will keep this conversation private, just between us?”
“Yes, of course, Major.”
He picked some trout away from the bone, savoring it. “Fact one: Our Queen and General inherited Chaeten bioweapon labs built before the war. These labs created viruses to kill crowds. Fact two: there’s recently been a leak in one of those labs which I’ve connected to Asri rebels. Fact three: Any ghost I encountered in the war was more or less indiscriminate in its violence. They would attack Chaeten and Asri alike when riled, and they didn’t stay in one place—nothing like the targeted attack we see in Crofton. Fact four: No Asri dead.” He leaned across the table. “So where does that leave us, Jesse?”
My every muscle tensed. “But if that was a disease that could kill people instantly, how am I the only one in town who got away?”
“You weren’t. The Red Demon picked off all the immune survivors—except you, apparently.”
I blinked. Right. She’d stabbed some people in the square before I even got there. “What if I just never got infected?”
“This bioweapon, SBO, can survive in the air for days. You and your brother were infected the moment you got back to town. You were both immune.” I clenched my eyes tight. “I honestly don’t know how you outmaneuvered her, mentally if not physically.” He sighed, taking a bite. “She’d have to know you’d tell someone everything.”
I shrunk into myself. I hadn’t outmaneuvered her. She’d let me get away—I must not have explained that part quite right. But I didn’t correct him, forcing my back straight. “Why?” I said in a small voice, having lost what little appetite I came with. “Why would she work with Asri rebels if she fought for Queen Azara?”
He took another sip of wine. “She never fought for the queen, and her mother was Asri, an Attiq-ka to be specific.” My mouth fell open. I didn’t know the two types of immortals had any children together. Even the queen, despite carrying the soul and memories of an Attiq-ka, was born Chaeten. “Again, repeat none of this. Not just for the empire, but for your own safety,” he said. “We’ve tracked and killed a good number of surviving Attiq-ka by now, save the queen’s mentor Marles, who supported her from the beginning. The rest would hunt you for even the rumor that such a demon came from one of them.”
