“Again, you surprise me Corporal. Not many can discern the subtleties between different types of demon. Maybe there is more to you than your meagre appearance would indicate.” Kari could feel her teeth growing at that last comment, but Elathir seemed to take no notice and started to examine the body in silence.
Kari took this opportunity to examine what Elathir had done to the interrogation room. It had changed drastically in the short time he had joined the Watch. Shelves now lined one wall with an assortment of books, though some remained empty still. A large cabinet covered in scrolling detail stood against another, one door was slightly open and the inside seemed to have hundreds of tiny drawers inside. A rickety old table with a hook for chains had been replaced by the marble slab the dead demon now occupied. How he had worked these changes in just a few hours she would never know. Elves are weird.
The elf finally looked up from the body. What she thought was a frown decorated his symmetrically sculpted face, although on a human it would have looked like they were trying to do long division mentally. “We will need to inform the chief that there is a dangerous demon still on the loose.”
“But it’s dead! Trust me; they don’t start walking round once they start to smell like that, unless there are some necromancers around, but they haven’t been around for years...” She trailed off when the elf-frown turned into an elf disapproving stare. This apparently looked the same on both elves and humans. “You’re not talking about this demon, are you?” Elathir frowned, “No, this demon was killed by a swift incision in the neck which severed its spinal cord, which leads me to think something managed to sneak up on it.”
Kari was shocked. Next, this elf would be telling her that she had in fact killed it and she had been wearing blue underwear at the time. “Surprising an Azri is no mean feat; they are the ruling elite of demon society, subservient only to the dragon emperor himself or his son, Drac Nazar,” Kari was well aware of this and told him so, though the elf didn’t seem impressed, and carried on regardless. “What I am trying to imply to you is that the only thing that can kill an Azri is another Azri. The other alternative does not bear thinking about.”
Kari was trying to act normally; this elf was far too clever and very good at guessing. The elf interpreted her silence as apparent stupidity. “The alternative would be that something stronger killed the Azri, and the only thing stronger than an Azri is a dragon.”
“It can’t be a dragon. There are only two dragons, and they both live in hell. Surely we would know if a dragon was on the loose in the city?” Kari said this out loud, though in her head she was screaming. If people know....she couldn’t let that thought continue. She had to keep her secret.
Elathir didn’t even look at Kari; he just strode out of the room towards the chiefs’ office. Kari followed him but at a distance. In her experience nothing good ever happened in the chief’s office. The haughty elf entered without knocking, but instead of the chief bawling him out and then giving a twenty minute lecture on the importance of manners, he just looked up and gestured to the comfy chair that was strictly for visitors and special guests only. Kari was disappointed; that lecture was one of her favourites along with “the importance of spare underwear” which he gave to Baxter after a particularly long week dealing with some water sprites in the sewage pipes. The elf chose not to sit and explained his findings about the dead demon.
“Impossible. I would know if there was a dragon on the loose in my city,” the chief blustered. In Kari’s opinion, Elathir was getting off lightly. If she had suggested that, she would have been laughed out of the office, no matter how true it appeared.
The elf’s face moved in a way that was, for a change, neither conceited nor patronising. Instead he looked concerned. “As you know, we elves have been investigating the demon threat for over two centuries now. I realise this is not a great amount of time”
To elves, Kari added silently to herself.
“But we have managed to establish a few sources in hell. One of the more startling rumours they have told us is that there are not two dragons in existence, but three.”
That last sentence seemed to reverberate around the room, bouncing around in all the corners, buzzing out of the door and into the bull pit, where it lingered nonchalantly around the desks, leaving the deafening sound of shock in its wake.
Don’t run, whatever you do, don’t run, you knew this day would come. Kari reminded herself to breathe. The people in the room had no idea of what she was, who she was or how she came into being. What she had told Bill about her life before coming to the city had been true. She had been a slave in hell, the brand on her shoulder was evidence of that, but they had no idea whose mark it had been.
The chief and the elf kept talking, but Kari didn’t hear any more of their conversation. People had started to come in and out, mostly smelling of subdued panic. This is it, I have to leave and start again. They’ll kill me if they ever find out. She turned and started to make her way, quietly, towards the door.
Kari was almost to the entrance when a voice rang out across the room, stopping everyone dead. “Where are you going, Corporal True?”
Even the nuisance flasher chained to a table waiting to be charged stopped trying to unbutton his coat. A bit early in the day for a catch like that but Markus Possle had chosen the wrong Watch officer to flash that morning when constable Hills had been on her way to work.
“I said, ‘Where are you going, Corporal True?’” Elathir repeated, in response to her quizzical expression. “We may have a dangerous dragon demon on the loose in the city, as well as disappearances of the underclasses, which I think are probably connected, and you seem to be, what is the expression? Ah yes, ‘clocking off’”
Kari struggled to find the words for any kind of answer that wouldn’t make the elf even more suspicious of her. No wonder he caused such a fuss about working with me, he probably already suspects I’m not what I say I am.
Kari opened her mouth to reply, not even knowing what she would say. She was quite sure that well done, you found the demon you’re looking for probably wasn’t appropriate. As she was about to speak, though, Bill came to her rescue. She was shocked she hadn’t noticed him enter.
“Lord Elathir, you’re probably not aware that the corporal was born into slavery in hell,” he said quietly but in the kind of voice that carried across a room, used exclusively by teachers and coppers. “Her owner was Drac-Shemal, his brand is on her shoulder.” Kari had no idea how he knew that, she had always been so careful when answering questions about it. “It’s little wonder she looks like a rabbit caught in the lamp light considering that. Or are you not aware of how demons treat their slaves?”
Bill’s tone seemed to unsettle the elf. Defensively, he replied, “I was not accusing her of a crime, Lieutenant, merely curious as to why she was leaving, as it seemed odd. And yes, I am well aware of how demons treat their slaves; they either end up dead or in thrall to the demon who owns them.” Elathir then regained some of his arrogance, “If this information had been made clear to me at the Palace yesterday, then this arrangement clearly would not have gone ahead. Instead you have utterly wasted my time.”
Kari gazed at the group of people surrounding her. The reaction on people’s faces seemed to range from disbelief to anger to smug satisfaction.
“Apologise.” This time it was chief Trollock, and he was starting to sound angry.
“It is hardly her fault that she is a demon slave, but if you think it is necessary for her to apologise for offending me, then I will not prevent it,” The elf haughtily assumed.
“Not her, you,” Trollock reiterated, his face not giving an inch. Elathir was outraged.
Kari then understood what he had been implying: that since she was not dead, she was obviously still a demon slave in thrall to her dragon overlord. Who she was probably leaving to report to, right now.
Bill was the only one quick