Chapter 8

They arrived in High Cove after dark. Ellerie was riding at the front of the procession with Boktar and Venni when they reached the outskirts. There was nobody out on the streets, but lights could be seen through windows. As they rode past a cottage, an old woman opened her shutters to stare out at the noise, then closed them with a bang.

“This is strange,” Venni said. “I’ve never seen it like this. Where is everyone?”

“Asleep?” Boktar guessed, though his voice was uneasy.

“It’s late, but it’s not that late. I suppose there aren’t that many houses out here. It should be different when we reach the old city.”

They continued on their way, but now Ellerie glanced from side to side, looking for any sign of people. They passed a tavern and she stopped her horse to peer through the open door. From where she sat, she could only see the tavern keeper and one patron at the bar. There was no window, so she couldn’t tell if anyone else was inside, but she didn’t hear any talking or laughing.

On the next block down, a man scurried across the street in front of them.

“Hello?” Venni called out, but the man didn’t stop. He continued down a side street until he was out of sight.

Corec rode up to join them. “It’s quiet out for this time of night.”

“Maybe there were rumors about the imps?” Venni said. “They don’t usually attack people, but that doesn’t mean you’d want to meet one in a dark alley.”

The breeze shifted, and brought with it the scent of sea air.

Corec said, “If we can smell the harbor, we must be getting close to the old city. I’ve only been here a few times though, so I’m not sure I remember the way in the dark.”

“It’s just up ahead,” Venni said.

A few blocks later, they passed through an archway in what had once been a stone defensive wall, though the structure was crumbling now. On the other side of the arch, the street changed from granite pavers to rounded cobblestone. The group dismounted so the horses would have an easier time on the unfamiliar surface.

“Does anyone know of a good inn?” Ellerie asked.

“There are some closer to the baron’s palace, if you want to follow me a bit farther,” Venni said. “I should probably head there now to find out what’s happening.”

Just then, a group of men carrying torches and lanterns turned onto the street and headed toward them. They waited until the men stopped in front of them.

The one in the lead, who wore a constable’s uniform, said, “You can’t be out on the streets after dark. There’s a curfew in place.”

“A curfew?” Corec asked. “Why?”

“Haven’t you heard? Demons are killing people!”

Venni said, “Duke Voss of Tyrsall sent me to help. What’s going on? I was told there were imps killing stray dogs.”

“That’s how it started, but then old Marlo, the baron’s wizard, tried to track them down. When they found him the next morning, he was in pieces.”

“Imps can’t do that.”

“It’s not imps. People have seen things walking the streets at night, things as big as humans, but they don’t look human. They killed some beggars too, and after that, the baron said nobody can be out after dark unless they’re in an armed group.” He motioned to his companions, all dressed as constables or guardsmen. “We’re trying to hunt them.”

“Well, I’m armed, and I need to speak to Baron Anders as soon as possible.” Venni glanced Corec’s way. “I may need to take you up on your offer to help.”

“Of course.”

Ellerie tightened her lips. She knew Corec was making that decision for himself, and would expect the others to decide on their own, but she doubted Venni would interpret it that way.

Throughout the trip, it had been apparent that the other woman considered Corec to be in charge of everyone in the group besides herself. To his credit, Corec always conferred with everyone when a question came up, but that hadn’t helped. Venni would make a decision or suggestion, then ask Corec what he thought. Even if he had little to say on the topic, Venni would wait until everyone else had spoken, then look to Corec for a final answer. He would simply repeat the most persuasive argument, regardless of who’d presented it—which was how they’d made group decisions before Venni joined them.

However, since she always waited for Corec to agree, it gave the impression that the others were merely advising him while he was making the decisions. It was done subtly enough that Boktar had told Ellerie she was imagining things, but it kept happening, and the more it happened, the more frustrated she grew.

Katrin and Bobo seemed content to follow Corec’s lead, and Shavala only chimed in if she had a suggestion. She never seemed particularly interested in making the decisions, and often didn’t even appear to be paying attention to the discussion. Treya would continue debating if she didn’t agree with a decision, but even she seemed to believe that Corec’s statements were a decision.

Ellerie figured it all came down to that warden nonsense. Venni clearly considered Yelena to be in charge of her own group, and she expected Corec to play a similar role. The sooner they found a way to end the binding spell, the better.

“We should all go,” Ellerie said pointedly, just to remind them that she was still there. Agreeing with Corec might play into Venni’s plan, but at least her voice would be heard. And in any case, disagreeing would be petty, at least until they found out whether these people actually needed their help.

“I can take you to the palace,” one of the guardsmen said. “If you were sent by Duke Voss, the baron may be willing to grant you an audience tonight.”

“Then lead on,” Venni said.

They followed the guard east, down a narrow street with old buildings that were four or five stories tall, built so close to each other that they were touching. Shops and other businesses lined the first floor of the buildings, though most were closed for the night. The lights shining through the upper-floor windows suggested apartments. There were more people out and about here, which helped to relieve the eerie feeling they’d had since arriving, but any time they encountered someone, the guard stopped to warn them to stay inside.

“This is the oldest street in the city,” Venni said. “If we followed it all the way, we’d reach the docks, but we’ll turn north before then to go to the palace.”

“I didn’t see it when I was here,” Corec said. “Is it really a palace?”

“Anders has High Cove all to himself, which makes him the richest baron in the kingdom. The only reason the Duke of the North doesn’t make his home here is that when the duchy was established, High Cove was just a small fishing town, and the first duke thought Ironholt was more important with all those mines. And it probably was, but the mines had to sell their ore, and High Cove was the nearest port, whether you go by road or river barge.”

“You know a lot about Tyrsall’s history for someone who grew up in Matagor.”

“After a few decades, you start to look for new things to occupy your time. I like to read. It’s probably Yelena’s influence.”

They reached the palace fifteen minutes later. It wasn’t as large as the Duke of Tyrsall’s palace or the Glass Palace in Terevas, but it was still a respectably sized building. They stopped in the courtyard.

“Are we all going in?” Boktar asked.

“That’s too many people, considering how late it is and that the baron doesn’t know we’re here,” Venni suggested. “Corec and I can talk to him and find out what’s going on, if the rest of you can watch the horses.”

Ellerie clenched her fists, but before she could respond, Corec said, “I think we should all hear what he has to say.”

“I’ll watch the horses,” Bobo said. “Perhaps Shavala could keep me company to help manage them?”

The dorvasta nodded in agreement.

Venni stared at them for a moment. “All right.” She turned to the guard. “If that’s acceptable?”

“I can’t speak for the baron, but if he’s willing to see anyone this late, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

The guard stopped to speak to two other guardsmen at the entrance, then led the group into a long entry room lined with marble columns. Once inside, he whispered something to a servant.

The servant said, “Please wait here in the vestibule. I’ll inform the steward of your arrival.”

“This is a vestibule?” Corec said to Katrin after the man had left. “It’s a third the size of my father’s manor house. Our vestibule was a mud room.”

Ellerie shot him a look. She’d once heard him introduce himself as being of House Tarwen, which Boktar had suggested was a barony in Larso, but he’d never otherwise spoken of his family in her presence.

A tall, gray-haired man dressed in something resembling a butler’s suit came in. “I am Sedwin, Chief Steward to Baron Anders. You arrived sooner than we expected. The baron will see you now, in the Council Chambers.”

They followed him out of the vestibule and down an ornate hallway that ended in a wide set of double doors. Inside was a corpulent, balding man dressed in finery.

“Ahh, Miss Venni, welcome back to High Cove,” the man said. “I wasn’t expecting your ship to arrive for another two days. But where is Miss Yelena?”

Venni and Corec glanced at each other.

“A ship, Lord Anders?” Venni asked the man in surprise. “Yelena’s coming here?”

“You didn’t know? Ahh, I see. You must be the help she referred to her in her first note. When people started dying, I wrote to her again. I received a response back a few days ago that she was on her way. The duke found a ship for her.”

Venni nodded. “Could you tell me what’s going on? The note we received—the first note—didn’t include many details.”

“That’s always the trouble with pigeon post; pigeons can’t carry much. About a month ago, people started finding dead cats and dogs in the street, with bite and claw marks. Nobody thought much about it at first, but it kept happening, and the information eventually reached the Chief Constable, who informed me. There was a wizard I employed, a man named Marlo, who said the marks looked like imp attacks. Now, I don’t have any experience with any sort of demons, imps or otherwise, and I certainly don’t want them in my city. Marlo thought he could find them and take care of them, but when he didn’t have any luck after the first few nights, I figured I should send for help. That’s when I wrote to the duke.”

“But now there are real demons in the city?”

Anders shrugged. “Nobody knows for sure. People are panicking and seeing demons in every shadow. But something killed poor old Marlo, and while I don’t know much about imps, I doubt they can ... do what was done to him. There have been more victims each night. Always after dark, and always someone alone and defenseless. Last night, it was a fellow who’d gone to a tavern with a group, but then got drunk and decided to leave by himself.”

“Is there any pattern to the victims or the locations?”

“You’d have to ask the Chief Constable that.”

“I’ll talk to him in the morning, and then we’ll see if we can do anything to help.”

Razai rode down the dark, empty street, wondering why it was so quiet. She’d narrowly avoided running into a group of armed men with torches—they looked too much like a mob for her taste. Besides them, she’d only seen a few people since arriving in the city, all of them in a rush to get to wherever they were going.

Danger, the whispers said in her mind.

Razai brought her horse to a halt and looked all around, but didn’t see anyone. Danger? she asked. What sort of danger?

There was silence for a moment, then, Cousins.

You mean demons? Here? Who? Why?

Little cousins and big cousins.

Little cousins meant imps, but big cousins could mean almost anyone. Then again, crossing over to the mortal world was difficult. She couldn’t manage it herself—when her father wanted her to come hellside, he had to expend the effort to bring her over. The more powerful a demon was, the harder it became to cross the barrier between the two worlds, so it was more efficient for him to send her back and forth than to cross over himself.