I followed her gaze as the army of gray men streaked toward us, their faces and eyes devoid of all emotion. Two hounds leapt from the cover of bushes and attacked the front line, savaging the first golem. But three other golems leapt on one of the hounds. The huge dog shook them off like fleas. The automatons swarmed it, punching and kicking. It snarled and snapped at the attackers. Two gray men gripped its neck and twisted. The hound yelped as a horrific crack filled the air. Its body collapsed in a silent heap.
"Ketsheva!" Kassallandra screamed.
Malkesh howled.
Kassallandra wiped angry tears from her face. "Follow me now!" She leapt through the arch. The other three hounds went through after her.
I looked up and saw one last hound circling the gray men, snapping and biting to delay them, but there were too many.
"Come on, you stupid dog!" I yelled at it. "Run!"
Its yellow eyes met mine and it hesitated. Then, tongue lolling, it raced forward and leapt through the arch. I pushed Elyssa. She stumbled through with an indignant yelp. I glanced over my shoulder at the woods as I raced through the arch to the other side. A face caught my gaze as I made it through. Underborn. He stood next to the thick trunk of a pine tree. And I could have sworn a smirk lit his face. A gray man dove toward me from the other side.
Kassallandra shouted a word as the golem's shoulders came through the gateway. The arch shuddered and collapsed back to its original diminutive size in a heartbeat, slicing the thing in half. The gray-suited torso hit the ground with a meaty thud. The golem's hands grasped at my feet. Malkesh leapt forward with a snarl and ripped the golem's head off with a savage yank. Then he coughed the nasty thing back out and booted it away with a huge paw.
"Why are those stupid things after me?" I said, breathing heavily as my heart pounded like a timpani.
"They were sent by someone allied with those who wish to kill you," Kassallandra said, standing among a spread of loose rocks and boulders, which had probably tumbled from the granite cliffs surrounding us and the lake in the middle of the abandoned quarry.
"Obviously," I said, my voice sparking with sarcasm. "Until about twenty minutes ago, I would have sworn that you were on the KJ side." I took a seat on a nearby boulder and took off a shoe so I could dump out the debris irritating the bottom of my foot.
Kassallandra arched an eyebrow. "KJ?"
I gave her a cross look as pine straw, leaves, and an acorn tumbled from my sneaker. "Yeah. Kill Justin."
Kassallandra leaned against a rough slab of granite and peered around the steep gray walls of the quarry. "Welcome to the place where Templars massacred my family and yours, Justin Slade."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Elyssa said, eyes narrowed and wary. "I think you have your history confused. Spawn ambushed the Templars when they came to apprehend Vadaemos Slade."
"Do not insult me with that vile term." Kassallandra's face hardened. "We are Daemos, not spawn." She waved the offense away with a flick of her wrist. "In any case, it is you who are mistaken about the events here. Your father led an unprovoked Templar attack on House Assad and Slade members while they were seeking Vadaemos and his illegitimate bride, Orionas of House Assad. Your father interfered with an internal affair."
"It was hardly an internal affair," Elyssa said, her porcelain cheeks flushing pink. "Vadaemos was manifesting into demon form and consuming the essence of innocents. He was breaking Overworld law. My father did his duty and lost every man under his command. He barely escaped with his life."
Nearly every man, I thought. All except for Kevin Sorenson, aka Turpin, aka Underborn, aka Jackass Supreme. That guy had more pseudonyms than I had pairs of underwear. Underborn had fallen into the lake in the middle of the massacre at Thunder Rock, thinking he was dead meat, and woken up in southern Colombia instead.
"Your father nearly provoked a war!" Kassallandra was on her feet, the blaze of her hair matching the color of her irises.
I wondered how she could change eye colors like that and if I could do the same. I then realized shiznit was about to get real if I didn't do something fast to end this argument. I put myself between the two women as they closed on each other. "No need to get nasty, ladies." I looked at Elyssa. "Remember what Underborn said about the whole thing being a setup?"
She folded her arms and backed off a step before nodding. "Someone wanted the Templars and Daemos to be at odds."
The red in Kassallandra's irises faded. "Are you referring to Underborn, the notorious assassin?"
I nodded. "Why don't we all calm down a bit and talk facts instead of yelling." I took my own advice and sat back down, taking time to empty leaves and other outdoorsy stuff out of my other shoe. Nature sure was dirty. Kassallandra lowered herself to a boulder and rested a hand on Malkesh's head. Elyssa took a seat next to me.
Neither of the women spoke, so I took it upon myself to break the silence. "Underborn said House Slade was here during the incident, but he didn't say anything about House Assad joining the party."
Shades of red danced in Kassallandra's eyes. "When House Slade cast out Vadaemos, Anae Orionas, to our great shame, joined him and made her love for him public. She was never to be shared with House Slade as a bond, but meant only for our own males. To break custom and mate with a male from another house without blessing is shameful."
I shuddered. "What's shameful is not allowing a person to be with someone they love and then making them bang their own relatives." I made a gagging sound to underline just how nasty it was.
A scowl marred her pretty face, but she moved on. "The Vadaemos-Orionas matter had to be settled. Once our families learned the two fugitives were hiding at Thunder Rock, we each sent our own task force to bring them back. Instead, a host of Templars beset them and only one member of Assad escaped to tell the tale. The Slades claimed the same happened to them, though we never were able to confirm this.""Only one Assad and one Slade escaped?" Elyssa said. "Did they happen to be high-standing members of each family?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, the heads of security for each family were the ones who survived."
"And those are the ones that other Daemos believe and respect, right?"
"Of course." Kassallandra tilted her head slightly. "Why do you ask?"
"My father is such a person among the Templars. He's someone others would believe without question. How is it all sides lost everyone except for their most important people?"
"Perhaps because they are the most skilled at surviving."
Elyssa crossed her arms. "I don't think that's it. In fact, I think Underborn was right, Justin. Someone played us all."
Chapter 4
"You truly think a fourth party engineered this debacle?" Kassallandra's eyebrows arched with skepticism.
"I think there's too much coincidence involved." Elyssa picked up a pebble and tossed it into the murky green water filling a large portion of the abandoned quarry. "I never knew the story because my father never talked about it. But hearing your side makes the whole thing stink to high heaven."
"Then why wouldn't your father have picked up on this?" I asked. "He's not stupid."
She shook her head. "No, but he's also a very hard man and this is a grudge he's nursed for a long time. He thinks his people were led into an ambush by a spawn—I mean Daemos—informant. He's convinced it was part of a despicable plot to severely weaken the Templars. Now he absolutely and universally despises them. Your people, Anae Kassallandra, were led into the same trap."
"But why would anyone go to such lengths?" Kassallandra asked.
"The Templars and Daemos are two of the most powerful and rigid clans of Overworld society. Daemos are the most politically evolved, and the Templars are the backbone of order. If those two factions were at war, then the others would be easy pickings."
Kassallandra's eyes softened with what seemed like appreciation. "You know a great deal for one of few years, Templaras Borathen."
Elyssa wrinkled her nose. "I just paid attention in history class." She tossed another pebble into the lake. "I was supposed to be taking the Cho'kai any day now. All I wanted to do was please my parents. Make them proud. I studied texts on the battles my father fought over the centuries and determined if I would've done anything differently or kept his course."
"Centuries?" I asked. "How old is your dad?"
"Old. But that's a story for another time. The one thing I discovered about my father is, though he's a brilliant tactician, he absolutely despises dishonorable people. He never forgives betrayal or desertion. Even worse, he couldn't care less why someone would commit such an act. All he sees is black and white."
"Blinded by self-righteousness?" I asked.
She nodded. "Unfortunately, yeah."
Kassallandra's eyes flared. "My house believed House Slade and the Templars were in league, though we never found proof."
"Even though the Slades lost people too?" I asked.
"As I said, we had no proof any of their people were killed. Only their belated assurances and accusations."
"So your survivor never saw any Slades actually die."
She shook her head. "The Slades contacted us later demanding retribution for their dead. Our people simply assumed it was part of a ploy so we would only blame the Templars for the betrayal. Truth be told, only the threat of open war between both House Slade and the Templars stayed our immediate retaliation."
"While House Slade thought the Templars were in league with the Assads." Elyssa said.
I snapped my fingers. "And the Templars blamed all spawn. Holy crap, what a number someone did on them. No wonder your dad's been warring with spawn all this time."
Light dawned in Elyssa's eyes as if a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Justin, your father's marriage would have healed that rift."