Demonkin (33 page)

Kara threw her arms around her mother. She let herself cry and Ona held her close. She clutched Ona and stopped thinking about being strong, about moving forward, about living without those she loved, and let her mother comfort her as she had when Kara was little. She let her mother be strong for her, reminded herself just how strong Ona really was.

All too soon, it was time for Kara to leave. She could mourn later, on the road. Every moment was so precious now.

Kara pushed back and dried her tears. “I'll meet you at Tarna as soon as I've freed the Five. I promise you that.” Kara imagined her father — her real father, grinning as he taught her how to fix Ona's disease — and knew Xander Honuron would want her to keep fighting. “Be ready.”

Tania saluted. Ona stepped back and Kara looked to the horses. She spotted the one she wanted.

“That's Storm,” Aryn said, pointing to a big brown gelding with a thick mane, saddlebags, and a canteen hanging off its saddle. “He's a good horse.”

“I'm sure he is.” Kara walked to the pale white mare snorting softly behind Storm and reached out. That brave mare nuzzled her hand.

Against all odds, Chesa had risked death once again. For her. Kara remembered all the horses they had lost on the way to Tarna, all Chesa's friends. Everyone Chesa loved was gone now.

Kara pulled herself into Chesa's saddle. They were survivors and they would survive, together. They would ride and they would hunt and they would sleep, and that was how the two of them would live until they reached Terras. Kara tapped her heels and made herself not look back.

They rode through the grasslands of the Valerun, and they rode through the scrublands below Highridge Pass, and they rode toward roiling rainbow storms. Kara remembered Trell's arms around her, Xander's hand gripping her shoulders, laughing with Sera and climbing trees with Byn.

She would never do those things again. Kara rode alone against an army of divine monsters, but she had Torn's blood. His power. She would fight for those who lived and mourn those who died. She would hurt, always, but she could not cease to feel if she was to defeat the Alcedi. Feeling was what made her different from these demons.

Jyllith had known how to close the Alcedi gate and while Kara had murdered her, Jyllith wasn't out of reach. Not if Kara followed the path left by Jair Deymartin. A good friend who died to free her from the Underside.

Kara needed Jyllith's council. She needed Trell's, and Halde's, and Xander's. She needed to talk to Torn.

She needed to learn the glyphs of a Soulmage.

THE END

Again, the book owes its completion and publication to the generous donations of time and advice from a great many people.

To Juli Mandala, my longtime friend, former critique partner, and absolutely awesome editor — thank you for your stellar job at slicing through all words that don’t belong, calling out all my obvious mistakes and some not so obvious ones, and trimming this book down to a healthy size. Our minds follow similar devious paths and your edits were crucial.

To Bill Benners and Eryn Kawecki at McBryde Publishing — thank you for setting me down the road to publication, and for providing so much wonderful advice. This book is better because of your input and you have consistently pushed me to improve as a writer. I hope I have.

To all of my advance readers, some of whom I’ve met at conventions and some of whom I’ve met only on the Internet — thank you for having the patience to slog through my earlier draft, and for providing so many intelligent and well-reasoned comments that vastly improved this book. If you’ve just re-read and recall the rough edges of the draft you read more than a year ago, I hope you’ve seen improvements.

To all those brave readers and reviewers who waded into the world of independent publishing to review
Glyphbinder
and now (I hope)
Demonkin
, thank you for taking a chance on an unproven author. Your support keeps me writing, as do your recommendations to friends. I strive to improve every day so if you’ve got feedback, I’d love to hear it!

Finally, to my wonderful wife Vanessa, thank you for making each day brighter. And to my lovely new daughter, Emma (who is still too young to read this), I hope one day you can enjoy this book as well.

When you’re old enough.

T. Eric Bakutis is an author and game designer living in Maryland. He is happily married and shares his house with a vicious, predatory cat and a sad-faced, cowardly dog. He’s been working as a professional game developer for over seven years, and writing novels on the side.

In his limited spare time, Eric hikes with his lovely wife and crazy dog, plays any video games he can sneak in between writing sessions, and participates in local events like the Baltimore Science Fiction Society’s Critique Circle. His short fiction has been published in several magazines and anthologies, and he is constantly writing and tweaking new stories.

He blogs about writing, videogames, and virtual reality on Wordpress, shares remixed videogame music and other anecdotes on Twitter, and prowls the forums of Fantasy-Faction. You can find links to his other books at his professional website,
www.tebakutis.com
.

Julia S. Mandala (
www.juliasmandala.com
) holds degrees in history and law, and is a freelance editor, scuba diver and belly dancer. She edited
The Anthology From Hell: Humorous Tales from WAY Down Under
and
High Plains Moon
, as well as acting as a copy editor for Yard Dog Press.

Her novels,
Villains in Training
, (with Linda L. Donahue),
The Four Redheads: Apocalypse Now!
,
Redheads in Love
(with Linda L. Donahue, Rhonda Eudaly and Dusty Rainbolt) and
House of Doors
are available from Yard Dog Press. Her works appear in
Chicks and Balances
,
Witch Way to the Mall
and
Fangs for the Mammaries
(Baen), and in
The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy II
,
The Four Redheads of the Apocalypse
,
Dracula's Lawyer
and small press anthologies.

If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a short review on Amazon, Goodreads, or the site of your choice. Every review helps make an author’s books more visible, and encourages others to take a chance on them as well. Even a star rating and a sentence of your thoughts is very much appreciated.

Kara, Jyllith, and Sera’s fight for the Five Provinces will conclude in early 2017 in
Bloodmender
, the final volume of this trilogy. Five guard your soul.