Over Night, Julie Steimle [world of reading .txt] 📗

be telling everyone that you are ill. In a way, it was good that you collapsed on the steps of the courthouse. However, you must play sick for two more days once you are done with Mr. Felap.”
He opened the door, walking out as a normal man and pulling on his house robe. Teris heard him give the servants orders not to disturb his son’s sleep while he is out.

Watching his father shut the door, Teris then slid open the curtains to his window. The moon was bright. He twisted the latch and opened the glass, breathing in the breeze that stirred the curtains with a gust. The air smelled strong of avarice and blood.

Hopping up onto the windowsill with a natural flap, Teris took one look and leapt out.

The cool air whipped around him, fluttering his silver hair back from his face. Teris mounted on the roof of a nearby house, floating and smelling the wind. The delicious smell was strong, drawing him down towards a road that was not near Mr. Felap’s home. Teris sniffed again, wondering if Mr. Felap was taking an errand somewhere. It seemed illogical and foolish for him to do so with Night Stalker’s about. As it was, he had already heard that there were two in town. If he were being stalked, he would have stayed indoors.

Flapping his large bat-like wings, Teris lighted onto a rooftop near the road where the smell was the strongest and looked down.

“I knew you would come,” a voice said to his right.

Jerking around, preparing for a fight with a solider, Teris saw an elderly looking Stalker lighting onto the roof next to him. His face was familiar, but he could not figure out how.

“I knew as soon as I saw you going white in court that you would be first out tonight,” the Stalker said.

Teris blinked. His eyes grew wide. “Judge Binard? You’re a Night Stalker?”

The elderly man smiled, nodding.

The indignity filled Teris with disgust. “Why didn’t you rule in my favor? What? Were you waiting to get him yourself?”

Shaking his head, the man sighed and settled with more relaxation on the ridgepole of the roof. “Of course not. I told you back then. You did not have enough evidence. However, tonight justice will be served.”

Teris stared at him silently. Drawing in a breath, smelling the air, he nodded. “Agreed.”

“Ah! A new one!” another Night Stalker flew down. “I smelled it and I knew the Judge here would be ready for the catch, but you—this is a new turn of events. Teris Lamarc, isn’t it?”

Teris looked up. He peered at the Stalker’s face and recognized the features. Placing a name with them was harder.

“It is,” Teris said feeling like grumbling despite the company. In a very deep and animal way, he wanted Mr. Felap’s blood for himself.

“Ah, well, this is my hunt,” the new Stalker said, ready to argue with Teris.

“I saw him first,” Teris replied getting up.

The other rose, flapping his wings.

The smell suddenly grew stronger. Blood and avarice. A song echoed on the air.

It is mine. All mine!
You can’t have it, love.
Give me more. Plenty more!
Just for me, my blood!

All three stalkers stared down into the road. Teris felt his heart jump as well as his stomach. It was strange to feel his heart beat when it had stopped. The feeling was suddenly unnatural.

“Too strong,” the judge murmured.

The other sucked in a breath, ready to dive down and attack the man below.

Teris looked, feeling the same drive, but his eyes told him clearly that it was not the one he was after below. It was young man strolling straight down the middle of the stone walled lane holding a bleeding thumb and singing the absurd song aloud. The smell of avarice was strong coming from him.

“That’s not Mr. Felap.” Teris flew upward off the rooftop.

“No, it is not,” the judge said, joining him.

“Who cares?” The other dived down to take out the young fool. “He’s mine!”

Watching the attack, Teris lighted onto a lower wall. The judge landed on the street lamp. Down below, the young man turned, pulling out a crossbow he had somehow hidden.

“Don’t make me kill you,” the young man said. He was already taking aim. “I just want to talk.”

The one Stalker halted in his dive, perching on the rock wall to the man’s right. “You lying, sneaky little demon. You aren’t what I’m after. Where did you hide him?”

Teris peered at the young man—no, soldier. He had seen him at the courthouse. Looking around, Teris sniffed the air. Other men were near by. The youth was not alone.

“I haven’t hid anyone,” the young soldier said. He lowered his crossbow. “I drew you here to make a deal.”

“What kind of deal?” the judge asked, flapping his wings and then clamping his clawed thumbs on the edge of the lamp to steady himself.

The young soldier looked up at him and then scanned the air into the darkness. He peered directly at Teris. Teris blinked, staring at the blue eyes that looked at him. Indeed, the other Stalker was right. This soldier was a demon—possibly a Cordril. His skin was too light to be a demonic Sky Child.

The soldier stepped with a gait that looked casual, but Teris could now see the Cordril deliberated his actions carefully. He really could be lying, ready to kill them all, or he could be telling the truth. The young man said, “If you do not kill anyone else tonight, I’ll bring to you the murderer and you can take care of him. Then I will leave you alone.”

“How is that a deal?” the judge asked. “So far it sounds like a trap for us. Where is the benefit for you?”

“It is a trap,” the other Stalker said.

Teris heard the soldier groan. The man walked across the cobblestone and put down his weapon.

“Look,” the soldier said, “It is Brein Amon law that murderers are executed for their crimes. I could kill you, but what good would that do us? I know more Night Stalkers will come and the killings of innocent people will continue. Or, I could end it right here and let you bring justice to the murderer. I prefer the latter option myself.”

“Likewise,” Teris murmured.

The judge glanced over at him and nodded. “We will know if you have brought the murderer or not.”

The soldier bowed, looking pleased

But the other Stalker flew up, shaking his head. “The Cordril lies. He loves carnage and will kill us all. I will find the killer myself—but first I will rid the world of you.”

“He is a Cordril.” Teris blinked and stared at the young soldier again.

Swooping as fast as the gusty wind in August, the Night Stalker dived into the walled road. Teris crouched over on his perch and watched the youth tumble down, ducking below the Stalker with agility uncommon in most humans. The demon youth skirted back towards his crossbow, grabbing it and taking aim. Clicking, the weapon released the wooden stake. It flew, striking into the Stalker’s wing near his elbow. Another stake shot out and pierced his heart.

Teris drew in a breath, watching the Night Stalker fall, screeching and clawing the air. Bloodlessly, it gasped and tumbled to the ground, flopping dead on the stone.

Standing up, Teris watched the demon soldier walk over to the body, still holding the weapon in his hands. The blue-eyed youth shook his head slowly, watching the Night Stalker twitch with a gaze skyward in terror. “I told you not to try it.”

The judge flapped off his perch back into the darkness, making distance between him and this demon-hunting demon.

“I won’t harm you if you make this deal with me,” the young blue-eyed demon said below looking up from the body of their fellow Night Stalker. “Don’t make me have to kill you.”

Flying over to Teris, the judge landed on the wall next to him. “What do you think? He’ll hunt us if we don’t.”

Teris peered at their dead comrade and thought hard about their options. The smell of avarice was still in the air. He drew in a breath and nodded. “I think it is best if we let him bring the murderer to us. If it is not Mr. Felap, we leave this street and find Mr. Felap ourselves. We have no need to hunt for anyone else, and I don’t think that creature knows who we are in day life, right?”

The judge grunted, thinking hard. “But if he really is a Cordril demon, then we are in grave danger. He might be able to hunt us down anyway. Their kind has been hunters for hundreds of years. Besides, I heard their troop also has a magister traveling with them. Who knows what magic they might use to seek us out.”

“Or draw us out,” Teris murmured. He flapped down and landed on the opposite wall, staring the soldier in the face. “You bring the killer here, and we will mete out justice. If you double cross us, you will not be forgiven.”

The Cordril lowered his head in a bow, yet not removing his eyes from Teris’s face. “I will have him here within the hour.”

Both Teris and the judge waited, flying off to a high rooftop to watch the commotion below. The other soldiers that had come with him to Kolden emerged from the bushes. The lieutenant who was at the head of their team walked straight for the demon soldier to talk to him. Teris watched with curiosity, noticing how the others skirted about this young soldier, some even taking orders from him. Three of the group ran up hill at once, heading straight for Mr. Felap’s home.

Teris smiled, sitting back and leaning on the chimney pipe. “So. He wasn’t lying.”

*

Mr. Felap did not like being disturbed so late at night, but when he heard the news from three of the hired soldiers that the Night Stalkers were taken care of, he rushed down the see the corpses.

“Where are the bodies?” Mr. Felap said, jogging in his slippers down to where the other two hired demon hunters stood waiting. He looked down at the one Night Stalker body. It was now wrapped in a net for quick disposal. The stake was jammed deep into its heart with about two others hammered in afterwards.

“You do realize that if the murderer is not caught,” the lieutenant of the group said approaching him, “more Night Stalkers will come?”

“And you’ll be here,” Mr. Felap replied with a nod. “You have done your nation quite a service.”

The youngest soldier walked over to him. He had been silent, standing with his head ducked until the men had returned. Mr. Felap pulled back when he saw his glowing blue eyes. “Yes. It may seem that way to you. But justice must be satisfied.”

Mr. Felap’s lips went white. He staggered back. “You’re a demon.”

“You should not worry about me,” the Cordril said, his eyes narrowing with a fixed glare. “I will not harm you.”

Two Night Stalkers flew down, landing on the road.