Legends of Lasniniar: The Devil You Know – Jacquelyn Smith

Legends of Lasniniar: The Devil You Know

Series: The World of Lasniniar

Merchants peddle fear in Belierumar.

Mothers cling to their children as they walk through the crowded marketplace. Eyes dart as people hurry to make their dubious purchases.

Demon-warding amulets. Herbs guaranteed to help victims of possession. Paige inspects them all with a jaundiced eye.

The young dwarf woman knows how to deal with demons. Probably better than anyone else in Lasniniar.

…With good reason.

In the aftermath of war, a new era begins in this stand-alone story from the World of Lasniniar epic fantasy series by Jacquelyn Smith.

→ Read an Excerpt

Recommend, rate, and review:

This title is also available as part of the Harbingers Lasniniar Collection.

“Amulets! Get your demon-warding amulets here!” a man in an obnoxiously bright-blue tunic called out over the muddled voices of the milling crowd.

A woman’s harsh voice competed from across the narrow, cobblestone street of the marketplace. “Magic herbs! Gathered fresh this morning—guaranteed to cast out any demon!”

Paige’s blue eyes roved the offerings as she passed. She suppressed a snort at the amulets. They were crude (by dwarven standards), human work. The various metal trinkets the hawker was selling looked like the symbols used by the various Unborn spirits who had been worshiped by the humans as gods—spirits that had just recently left the mortal plane. Did their symbols even matter anymore?

Paige shrugged to herself, her pair of honey-blond braids rustling against her chain mail from beneath her polished helm. Even if the symbols still had some residual power, her experienced eye told her the metal itself was a sub-par mix of lesser elements, polished to look like starsilver. The rare metal came from the mines of the dwarves and the Earth Elves, and was one of the few things that actually did the demons any harm.

The herbs on the other hand… Paige had little knowledge of herb lore. At least the woman’s offerings smelled decent. Piney scents mixed with musky, rich ones, helping to alleviate some of the smell of the press of bodies around her. Despite the crowded marketplace, a trace of fear still lingered in the air, revealing itself in a sour miasma of sweat.

The people of Belierumar were afraid.

Paige saw it in the way mothers clung to the hands of their children, keeping them close. Eyes darted constantly, searching for any sign of one of the demons walking among them. Their gazes paused when they saw Paige.

Her short, but broad stature made her dwarven heritage clear. Between her chain mail and the ax strapped to her belt that bumped against her hip with each step, no one would mistake her for a child. Most of the humans flushed and looked away when they noticed her, but a few of the children stared.

The dwarves had been long-time allies of the humans of Middle and Northern Lasniniar, and traded regularly with Belierumar.

But they had sided with the elves against the humans in the recent war.

Truth be told, the dwarves hadn’t so much sided against the humans as they had against the demons that had misled and possessed them. It was only on the battlefield that the demons had finally been revealed for what they were, and the humans had fled in panic—those that had survived at least. Many of them had been possessed, forced to fight against their former allies to the death.

Paige suppressed a shudder. She couldn’t imagine what that must have been like—to be shunted into a passenger role in your own body while someone else controlled you like a puppet…

Her gaze drifted inexorably to the hooded figure walking beside her.

[Copyright © Jacquelyn Smith, 2021]