The Devil You Know: A Legends of Lasniniar Short: Legends of Lasniniar

By Jacquelyn Smith

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 award-winning author, Jacquelyn Smith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WaywardScribe Press
• Release date: Mar 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781989650615

Jacquelyn Smith

Jacquelyn Smith writes both epic and intrigue-based fantasy, and mysteries that range from cozy to kick-ass, with independent, strong-willed heroes, in search of their place in the world. These heroes take the problems they face seriously (but never themselves), and are supported by unlikely friendships they forge along the way. Jacquelyn is the author of the World of Lasniniar epic fantasy series, the Fatal Empire fantasy intrigue series, the kick-ass Kira Brightwell mysteries, and the Mackenzie Quinn Canadian cozy mysteries. (She originally published several of the early Kira Brightwell titles under the pen name Kat Irwin, before killing Kat off to eliminate the many awkward questions about having a second identity.) When spending time in the real world, Jacquelyn lives on the suburban outskirts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with her husband, Mark, and their feline owner, Xena, who is definitely a warrior princess. To learn more, visit: JacquelynSmithBooks.com

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The Devil You Know

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

A LEGENDS OF LASNINIAR SHORT

JACQUELYN SMITH

WAYWARDSCRIBE PRESS

The Devil You Know: A Legends of Lasniniar Short

Copyright © 2023 Jacquelyn Smith

Published by WaywardScribe Press

First published in March, 2020 as Legends of Lasniniar: The Devil You Know

Cover and layout copyright © Jacquelyn Smith

Cover design by Jacquelyn Smith/WaywardScribe Press

Cover art copyright © Romankybus/Dreamstime

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

CONTENTS

The Devil You Know

A Devil of a Solstice

A Note from Jacquelyn

About Jacquelyn Smith

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

A mulets! 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.

Paige waded through the crowded marketplace, using her elbows to bull her way along. Meanwhile, her companion walked at a leisurely pace, casually slipping between people who seemed to naturally give her a wider berth, as if some subconscious part of them sensed what lay beneath her cloak.

Paige doubted any of the people around them would have recognized a demon if they saw one. After all, that was how their entire embroilment with the fallen angel Focalor and the Unnamed Lord’s host had come about in the first place. The reason for her companion to hide her features was far more mundane.

She was wearing a dead woman’s body.

Well, not dead, exactly. That is, the body itself was still alive and functional. But the original soul that had inhabited it had died of illness. Claire had moved into the empty shell shortly afterward—a consideration not observed by most Snatcher demons (or any