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“Not Zakaar,” Seretis said, face ashen. “Xharbek.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Xharbek, Szerain’s ptarl, so deep in hiding that even the other demahnk didn’t know his whereabouts. “He’s on Earth?” I asked. “That’s good, right? Szerain needs stability.”
“Szerain used the nexus to seek Xharbek.” Seretis lifted his hands and rubbed them together as though washing them. “Not long after, Xharbek used it to seek Szerain.”
The implication crashed through me. “Szerain said that when I disrupted his ritual, it was like sending up a beacon.” I gulped. “He was scared shitless. Of Xharbek.” Szerain was free of his prison, and Xharbek probably wanted to rectify that.
Seretis sucked in a sharp breath and squeezed his eyes shut as agony contorted his features. Bryce let out a curse and shot me a look of frustration and impotent rage that I understood too damn well. We both knew what this was: One of the knifing headaches the lords got when their thoughts strayed into forbidden territory. So, was it anathema to think there might be reason to fear any of the demahnk? It sure as hell fit with my developing theory that the demahnk—a.k.a. the Demahnk Council—were the ones doing the controlling.
Seretis cried out and clutched his head. Bryce put a hand on Seretis’s shoulder, helpless to do more to ease him. An idea for a distraction blinked on in my head, and I surged to my feet. “Sammy!” I shouted, hoping the goofy dog was within earshot. “Sammy! Here, boy!”
To my relief, frantic barks sounded from within the house. “Jill, let him out!” I yelled. Seconds later the back door flew open, and Sammy streaked toward us. He bounded onto the slab then bowled Seretis over in a flurry of enthusiastic face licking and tail wagging. Bryce received a solid tail thwack to the side of the head before he could scramble up and out of the way. Cringing, I watched in trepidation. “Slobber-trampled to death” as a headache cure wasn’t quite how I’d envisioned this going, but my concern eased as a laugh burst from Seretis.
The lord rolled into a fetal position and protected his face with his forearms, still laughing and making inarticulate noises of mock-distress. Bryce grinned at me and gave me two thumbs up. I managed a weak smile in response. That could have ended in disaster. Gee, Mzatal, sorry but Seretis can’t come help y’all with your world falling apart. You see, a dog jumped on him and cracked his skull on the nexus.
Seretis disentangled enough from Happy Dog to sit up. I crouched beside them and scratched Sammy’s ears. “You’re the best dog ever,” I told him. Sammy responded with a big, wet slurp across my face then plopped down next to Seretis and rolled to his back in a clear bid for a belly rub. Seretis obliged with a smile, but after a moment it dissolved.
“It was Xharbek. He used the nexus to set the dream link.”
I goggled at that revelation. “Why would a demahnk—a hidden one at that—make a dream link from me to that asshole?”
Seretis pressed his mouth tight. “None can guess the ways of a demahnk.”
Translation: I’m avoiding headache punishment. My ire flared at the whole situation, but I tamped it down in the face of more urgent considerations.
“Seretis, you said Rhyzkahl can’t hurt me in the dream space because I’m the initiator,” I said. “Does that mean it’s safe for me to initiate a visit?”
“He cannot entrap you or harm you physically. However, he can hear and remember your words. Say nothing you do not wish him to know.”
“Right. Got it.” I engaged in furious thinking. “How many humans are in the demon realm against their will?”
His eyes shadowed. “I only know of six who abide with qaztahl. All brought in by Rhyzkahl this past year.”
“Which qaztahl?” The eleven lords spanned a vast range of temperaments, from gentle Elofir at one end to vicious Amkir at the other.
“One woman is with Vrizaar, another with Jesral. Two are with Rhyzkahl. Amkir holds one man and one woman.” He paused. “Kadir had two men. But they are dead.”
A shiver went through me. Kadir relished hunting human quarry.
“It is the mandate of the Council that only humans deserving of punishment by the sta
ndards of Earth may be hunted,” Seretis said in response to my thoughts.
“You’re telling me the demahnk are okay with Kadir’s brand of torment?”
“They do not interfere if he abides by the parameters set.”
I rubbed my arms, chilled. They’d damn well better not judge Paul to be deserving of punishment. “The rest of the humans are alive?”
“The six captives live, as do the others.” His eyes met mine for a heartbeat before he looked down and away. “Michelle Cleland is with Elofir and any others with whom she chooses to spend time. Michael Moran dwells with Rayst and me, and is not unwilling.”
Michelle had been a Symbol Man “sacrifice” to Rhyzkahl, and Michael was a brain damaged young man with the ability to shape earth into golems. “I have no problem with the willing ones,” I said. “What aren’t you telling me?”
His expression grew haunted. “I have failed at negotiations to acquire any humans since coming to agreement with Amkir for Michael.” Bryce cursed under his breath and rested a hand on Seretis’s shoulder.
“That you tried at all means worlds to me,” I said gently. An ugly story lurked behind the confession, I was certain—especially since the brutal Amkir was involved.
Sammy started barking and bolted toward the woods. Seretis leaped to his feet. “An entity has passed through the valve.”
