Page 52 of Red Demon (Oria #1)

New Faces

“H ey friends,” I said, tone casual despite my drawn sword.

Heads turned to one another at that, but I didn’t hear a single rustle of fabric from them. They must have shielded both the sound and sight of their approach.

One of the figures stepped forward. A woman, still in shadow. “Surrender, Chaeten,” she said in my native tongue.

I lowered Istaran a fraction. “I’m not your enemy—if you haven’t noticed,” I said in Asri, nodding my head at my glowing blade. “If Oria doesn’t want me dead, why should you?”

The woman lowered her hood. I saw olive skin and a lock of white-braided-into-dark hair. She narrowed hazel eyes. “Who are you?”

“We’re Jesse and Asher Eirini, son of Galen Eirini, late elder of Nunbiren.” I saluted with a smile, relishing her blink at the Asri surname. “And that’s the Red Demon behind me.” I swallowed.

She nodded, unperturbed as the rebels whispered. “You may call me Master Telesilla. What tech are you using to escape judgment by Oria, and to tether that sword?”

I scoffed. “Escape judgment? Because of the Chaeten eyes? Do I need to glow blue to be human enough for you bigots?”

“That’s blood on your empire uniform, Chaeten. Whose do you wear?” Telesilla said.

A man stepped forward, removing his hood to show eyes like mine, but sporting long Asri braids over dark skin. “We do not deserve your disrespect,” he said, voice tight with anger. “Anyone who can live by Niire Mai is welcome among the disciples of Reic.”

“Cool,” I said. “Tell your guy to leave us alone, and we’ll do the same for him.”

“Master Soren,” Telesilla warned. The man stepped back. She gestured to another rebel. “Search their belongings, please.”

The rebels dug through our bags, laying everything out in the chamber. They swore at Faruhar’s venison jerky and handled her leather journal through the fabric of their cloaks.

“What’s this?” a gruff voice demanded, flipping through the pages of Faruhar’s scrawling illegible text.

I bristled. “None of your fucking business.”

“You bound it in flesh,” the rebel said. “This had a mind once.”

Telesilla cut in. “Set it aside for Reic, Kagan.”

“You won’t be taking anything.” I brandished my sword again.

Their magic hit me quick. I saw lights explode behind my eyes, felt my legs give way, my ears ringing and head pounding. I almost gashed Faruhar and myself with Istaran as I fell onto the mossy platform, tearing my cloak instead.

When my head cleared and I found strength to raise my bruised body up, the rebels jeered around me.

“Not so tough around Chout Attiq-ka , are you Chaeten?”

Attiq-ka discipline, they said. They didn’t call it magic, but it was.

“May I have the honor of executing the Asri-sa soldier ? I saw that man kill Eliona with my own eyes,” a rebel accused. The crowd murmured. Angry. Asher looked sluggish, confused.

“Let the man speak first,” Telesilla said.

Someone shoved Asher forward, the ground underneath him rippling with light. Asher took a few breaths, probably clearing his head of magic to come back to himself. Then he bowed his head before Telesilla, offering a deep Asri salute of heart and mind. I shuttered away my anger at the deference.

Telesilla cleared her throat. “Oria knows you. You are a soldier for Queen Azara, a member of Major Mahakal’s battalion. You killed several loyal to Oria. You slaughtered the Attiq-ka elder Eliona, and injured Sategca, both members of the Council.”

I frowned at that. What council?

“You killed Barille, Neolin, Kandalanu—our friends, innocent of malice, minds who live by the principles of Niire Mai . Do you deny this?”

Asher flinched through the accusations, his head hanging lower with each word.

“I also live by Niire Mai. I do not know the names of all I killed, but it is true I killed an Attiq-ka and at least three other rebels, believing they were demons.” Shame laced his words as he spoke.

“I no longer serve the empire, nor Major Mahakal.”

“Why did your master dismiss you?” Telesilla asked.

While Asher gathered his words, I said, “I don’t think Mahakal took it well when the Red Demon and I tried to kill him.”

Asher gave me a desperate look, an order to let him do the talking. “My brother and the Chaeten-sa helped me understand Mahakal is lying to the people of the empire, including his soldiers. Mahakal is now hunting the three of us. It’s why we risked coming down here.”

“Then we should give you right back to your master, na? ” a voice said.

“Great idea,” I interrupted. “I’m sure Mahakal would be so grateful he’d offer you all quick deaths instead of slow. He might even skip some of the raping.”

Asher clenched his eyes tight. Telesilla studied me.

“What my brother means to say is we have a common enemy. I never meant to take the lives of innocent ka ,” Asher said, with genuine emotion in his voice.

“Oria knows my heart in this. If you want my life as payment, take it. But my brother has never killed ka . He wears only the blood of demons. Please let him and the Red Demon go. She sacrificed herself to save us, to do right.”

The room fell silent. And I could feel the mood shift with uncertainty.

“What’s wrong with the Red Demon?” Soren, the Chaeten rebel said.

Asher loosed a breath. “Oria is killing her.”

“Then Oria has already judged her; she dies,” Telesilla said, in a voice that almost sounded like she gave a shit.

I imagined cutting those self-righteous smirks and patronizing frowns off their faces with a blade.

But I took a deep breath, looking to Ash for strength.

“Oria is making a mistake, Master Telesilla.” I bit back my anger.

“I will vouch for her before the ancestors, just as my taam Galen did for me. She’s been out there killing the ruren-sa standing up against Mahakal to make sure innocent people don’t die.

There is nothing you can demand of me that I will not consider worth the price of her life. If you have a price, name it.”

The rebels murmured, the glow on their skin fading. The magical equivalent of a lowered weapon, I guess.

“You wish to kill Major Mahakal, Jesse Eirini?”

I gave a firm nod.

“My dahn tells me I can trust you, Master Telesilla,” Asher’s voice broke as he prostrated himself cold stone. “I stand with my brother. Guide us out of here, and we’ll help in any way we can.”

The air crackled with tension as Asher’s words hung heavy. The rebels seemed unsure, looking from face to face. This deferential humility trip of Asher’s was working better than anything I could throw at them. I had to give him that.

“I can accept the two of them, but the Chaeten-sa was bred for war,” one rebel grumbled, a stocky guy I would prefer not to mess with. “Her mind is not capable of living by Niire Mai , as Oria itself has judged.”

A mumble of agreement rippled through the crowd. Soren squinted to stare at her, at me.

Asher nodded, his voice thick with regret. “Disagree if you will, but just because it’s no sin to kill a demon doesn’t mean you have to. You can choose mercy. Let her continue the path she is on now and Oria will judge later. She will continue to help us and be a powerful ally.”

Telesilla seemed to deliberate. The rest looked to her.

“Asher knows the inner workings of Mahakal’s unit. All of us, the Red Demon too, will keep swinging when Mahakal’s tech blocks your magic. She will repay her life debt,” I said, hoping that was true.

They didn’t answer, just kept shifting their gazes between us. Finally, Telesilla spoke, her voice tinged with suspicion. “Your changed opinions on Mahakal I can understand, Asher Eirini. But why would you be so eager to offer information, to help kill the minds you served with?”

Asher closed his eyes tight. “No one will support him if they know the truth.” He looked around the cavern, his voice gaining conviction.

“We also have a friend in Uyr Elderven, a modtech expert. Maybe she can help us if we can get her the right tools. She’ll figure out why some people succumb to the ghosts and others don’t.

The ghosts can’t touch Jesse or the Red Demon. ” He nodded back to me.

A long silence; the rebels looked among each other.

“Let’s talk, Asher Eirini.” Telesilla offered Asher a hand up from where he knelt on the ground.

They walked off to a shadowed alcove in the far corner, entering a room that opened to their touch.

One by one, the rebels stopped sending wary looks my way and walked off to join them.

I would not risk leaving Faruhar’s side, even as the minutes dragged on.

Faruhar’s chest rose and fell—rapid and shallow breaths.

Her eyes fluttered open only when we were alone. “They will only help us if you keep your mouth shut, Chaeten,” she whispered in Bria’s voice.

“Bria, where have you been?” I hissed back. “If you’re Attiq-ka, they’ll listen to you more than us.”

“I can’t.” Faruhar’s body shivered. “Reic can’t know I’m here.”

“Why?”

Her lips trembled, warbling with emotion. “He can’t mend me, but he’d try, even if that would break what heart I have left. He’d also want to kill Faruhar.”

I tightened my jaw, deciding that the killing Faruhar part was all I needed to understand. “I’ll keep your secret, Bria.”

It was almost an hour later when Asher and Telesilla returned, their faces grim but determined.

Telesilla approached Faruhar, her hand glowing. I pulled back, shielding Faruhar with my body. “No.”

“It’s okay, Jesse Eirini,” she said. “I agreed to help her.”

I looked to Asher before I found the strength to accept that.

Telesilla bent down, her hands illuminating the shadows of Faruhar’s scars and loose hair.

The glow passed into Faruhar’s skin. Faruhar groaned, but did not rise.

The light flickered out. Telesilla furrowed her brows and tried again.

But Faruhar’s breaths were deeper, her calloused hand in mine warmer.

“She’s resistant,” Telesilla said. “I cannot push through beyond minor healing.”

“Thank you.” I relished the strength in her pulse, the warmth of her skin under my hand.

Telesilla rose to Asher, taking his face in her hands. His tan skin glowed under her touch. When she removed her hands, I saw the face of a man I didn’t know, still with highlighted hair cropped short, gold rings in brown eyes. But it wasn’t Asher.

“That will help you get through security in Uyr Elderven unless you go near a magic blocker.”

“The police only have a couple blockers in the city, though. They wouldn’t want to risk killing off their own healers.” Soren’s eyes narrowed at my hand on Faruhar’s arm. He looked up, adding, “You should be fine.”

“To remove the glamor, wash your face in a river that touches Oria, or it will fade on its own in a month, six weeks at most.” Telesilla moved to touch my face.

A strange tingling sensation washed over me when her hand met my cheek. When I blinked my eyes open, I touched my face, a jaw that felt smoother than I’d left it, the bones more rounded. This was no deception. She’d changed my face.

“Whoa, that’s weird,” I said. “Thank you, Telesilla.”

“If you are in a hurry to leave, we’ll lead you out away from the soldiers,” Telesilla said, her voice gentle. “Asher Eirini, my network will speak with you again when you arrive in the city. Please check into The Mora Inn when you arrive.”

Soren helped Asher with our bags, and I heaved Faruhar into my arms, still leery of letting anyone else touch her.

We followed Telesilla out of the chamber and into another hallway inclining up.

Asher chatted away, even smiled, winning them over slowly the way Ash always does.

I walked in silence, feeling not only the weight of a woman whose toned muscles and high bone density made her much heavier than she looked, but the weight of our new alliance.

We weren’t just outlaws anymore, we were rebels too.

I studied Faruhar’s every breath, her scars, evidence of her continued survival, and yet—so vulnerable in my arms. She stirred against me, and I was aware of every place our bodies touched.

I tried to rein in my thoughts, clutching her tighter to my chest. What would Galen say if he saw how I was looking at his killer right now?

“Stop looking at her weird,” she whispered in Bria’s voice.