Lisa Shearin - The Trouble With Demons

Tam laughed softly. “One letter’s not going to change Carnades’s mind. Mychael is probably about the only one who doesn’t have me at the top of their suspect list. Part of Mychael’s job is to know the names of the dark mages on Mid.” Tam grinned in a baring of fangs and teeth. “Most lawmen would stop at knowing names; Mychael makes the extra effort to personally inform these mages that he knows what they’re up to, and if they break the law, they will pay the price.”

“Bet that makes him popular with the black magic crowd.”

“Over the years, several have gotten annoyed enough to try to do something about it. As a result of acting on their annoyance, Mid now has four less dark mages.”

“Mychael killed them?’

“One got obliterated by his own spell. Mychael simply deflected it back at him.”

I gave a low whistle. “Payback is hell.” And deflecting something that big took even bigger magical mojo.

“The other three joined forces against him.” His tone turned admiring. “Mychael took all three of them down. At the same time.”

“Deflected spells?”

Tam shook his head. “No, just Mychael. There wasn’t enough left for the watch to clean up.”

I blinked.

“Those three had killed four students and injured nearly a dozen others. Mychael doesn’t tolerate black magic anywhere near the students.”

Students. Piaras. And Talon.

Damn.

Sarad Nukpana had done it, so had Rudra Muralin, and now Carnades Silvanus. They had used people we loved, threatened them with death and worse to get us to do what they wanted. It had happened to both Piaras and Talon. My lips narrowed into a thin, angry line. The demons wiggling through that Hellgate would be serving flavored ices back home before I let that happen again.

“Did you hear what Carnades said about Piaras and Talon in the watcher station?”

Tam’s voice was dangerously soft. “No, I didn’t.”

I told him.

His long fingers clenched the glass in his hand. I expected it to shatter. “Carnades’s prejudice will spread like a disease.” His words were equally soft, and just as scary.

“Where’s Talon now?” I asked.

Tam tilted his head, indicating a long hallway on the other side of the room. “In his room where he will stay until I can secure escorts that he cannot lose.”

“Did he tell you what happened in the Quad?”

“I saw most of it through your eyes; so I had a good idea as to the rest. Talon doesn’t know that, nor will he. Having four Guardians escort him home gave me the perfect excuse to get his side of the story, directly from him.” Tam sighed wearily. “My son is, shall we say, creative in his evasion of blame.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Like father, like son.”

“In Talon’s version, he played but a minor role. You and Piaras ended up with the credit for the demon’s defeat.”

“That was no minor role.”

“I know.”

“Your son has some major pipes.” I hesitated. I didn’t want to bring up painful memories, but if anything like the Quad happened again, I needed to know what Talon had in his vocal arsenal. “Talon’s mother. What was her spellsinging specialty?”

“She was a nightclub singer. If she was anything more, she hid it well.”

Just like Talon.

“Do you know anything about her family?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

His answer was abrupt-and I knew Tam well enough to recognize it for the lie it was. Tam knew but he wasn’t telling. I wasn’t going to push him on it, at least not now. It was probably just painful memories of the woman he once loved, now dead. Probably.

“Does your family know about Talon?” No one other than Tam knew until last week. I didn’t know if Rudra Muralin or any of the Khrynsani got a chance to send word back home of the new addition to the Mal’Salin family, but if they did, it could be trouble of the worst kind-for Talon and for Tam. Tam’s only connection to the Mal’Salin family had been through his late wife. He’d told me that they hadn’t had any children, so you’d think the Mal’Salins wouldn’t care what Tam did-or who he did it with. Apparently once in the family, always in the family; especially when you’d been the goblin queen’s chief shaman for five years. The Mal’Salins didn’t let go of that kind of talent. I couldn’t throw rocks; my family was the same way.

“They know,” Tam said simply. “They have requested that I deny him.”

I snorted. “Requested? The roundabout goblin way of saying ‘do it or else.’ ”

“Precisely.”

“What are you going to do?”

Tam smiled coldly. “What I’ve already done. Formally acknowledged Talon as blood of my blood, my son, and my heir.”

I whistled. “That put you and the kid in the royal crosshairs.”

“I was in the family’s crosshairs before-and so was Talon. I’ve merely put my cards on the table. I will not deny what is mine.”

“You can’t be the only Mal’Salin with a half-breed child.”

“I’m not, but the royal family keeps any dalliances-”

“Under the covers where they belong.”

“Their opinion is not mine. And with Rudra Muralin still at large, and the Mal’Salins aware of Talon’s existence, he has had an escort.”

“I didn’t see any guards.”

“He has two, and this morning Talon eluded them. Though I’m certain he did it more out of a desire to rebel than any true desire to lose them.”

“It’s his way or no way,” I said. “Again, sounds like you.”

“Talon has assured me that it won’t happen again. Many of the students who are of noble goblin blood have similar bodyguard arrangements. Talon doesn’t stand out in the least.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I knew what Tam meant by protected. “Oh, I’m sure your colleagues blend right into the woodwork. Other kids have muscle protecting them; Talon has a dark mage hit squad.”

“Until the danger to my son is past-that is, until I see Rudra Muralin’s cold, dead body for myself-then yes, my colleagues will remain here protecting my son. You have taken similar precautions for Piaras?”

Talon had dark mages. Piaras had pirates. A good choice if any potential attackers chose steel or clubs. Problem was, demons didn’t favor either weapon-and neither did Carnades. Vegard was doing his best to keep me off of a slab in the morgue, or a cell in the citadel. I’d ask Mychael to make a similar arrangement for Piaras.

I tossed back the rest of my drink. “If Muralin doesn’t get what he wants, how long will it take him to get that Hellgate fully open?”

“He’s only completed the first steps to opening it,” Tam said. “The types of demons spotted around the city today are nothing; they’re just the beginning. It will take days to get a Hellgate fully open and stabilized. That’s why it takes an obscene amount of strength to open one-that and stamina.”

“So Muralin’s somewhere on this island giving himself a psychic hernia opening a Hellgate.”

“Unless he doesn’t want it all the way open.”

“Why?”

“Like you said, he wants the Saghred, not an island seething with demons.”

“And because extortion works better that way,” came Mychael’s voice from the now-open door.

Mychael looked at me with a mixture of concern and relief. “You’re still here.” He left out “with Tam,” but his eyes said it clearly enough. “Vegard, allow no one in.”

“Yes, sir.” Vegard had the look of a man who knew a chewing out was coming. I knew it was my fault. What had happened between Tam and me wouldn’t have happened if Vegard had been in the room with us. I owed my bodyguard an apology-and myself a swift kick for not listening to him.