No just any water demon, either- specifically one of the Litanu, a servant of a local sea god whose true-form would be a lot more draconic, if I remembered my studies correctly. Scholars argued over whether the breed had seven heads, or if there were just seven of them. I hoped most sincerely that we would not be verifying either theory in the next few moments.
Of course, I had no way of communicating any of this to my Slayer, so I clamped my jaw and trusted her wits.
Holofernes stepped closer to her, and in his movement I saw the lithe muscles of a serpent uncoiling. He reached out and took her chin gently in his hand, and I saw her trembling, whether from fear or eagerness to kill him, I was not certain. She may not know what he was, but she could certainly tell he wasn’t human.
“I would never hurt anyone who came freely to serve the great god, Sennacherib,” he said, holding her eyes with his own. “I punish only those who defy his divinity, as your people have stubbornly insisted on doing.”
My Slayer cast her eyes downward, and Holofernes released her chin. “Come, my dear- your leaving them has saved you, and we must feast to celebrate wisdom- and courage- such as yours.”
“I have not yet earned it, my lord,” she shook her head so that the gold she wore sparkled in the lamplight. “I have promised to tell you how to capture Bethulia with no loss of life, and this I must do.”
I shall leave out the bowing and scraping and flirting she did- masterful tho it was- and distill the essence of what she told the general. It was the most beautiful twisting of a truth to lie I have ever encountered; she reaffirmed that so long as her people kept the Law, they could not fall to a conqueror’s sword, but that Holofernes’s cutting off of the water supply had made them realize that they could certainly fall to hunger and thirst without him ever needing to breach the walls. She told him that the Elders had decided to seek permission from Jerusalem to eat and drink that which was forbidden to them, and that as soon as Jerusalem agreed to this- which they would, because Jerusalem was full of corrupt priests eager to trade dispensations for gold- they would break the Law by lying to themselves that it was sanctioned. And when that moment came, the gates would throw themselves open at Holofernes’s approach.
“And how shall I know when that moment has arrived, lovely one?” Holofernes asked dryly, and I made a mental note that whatever other epithet I might mentally hurl at him, ‘stupid’ would not be among them.
“I am a devout woman,” my Slayer said. “It is because of my devotion to my God that I could not remain in that city of hypocrites. God sees and approves of my devotion, and has, time and again, sent me Insight when I most needed it. It was He who guided my footsteps to your camp, and if I ask Him, He will reveal to me when Bethulia breaks faith.”
She went on to explain that in order to keep her mind open to her God’s words, she must purify herself daily after the evening meal, and then spend the rest of the night in meditative prayer, returning only when the sun broke the horizon.
“I will need my maidservant to help me with the rituals,” she said, “And to watch over me as I keep my vigil.”
“That is reasonable enough,” said Holofernes. “And of course I will provide you with a strong man to guard the two of you.”
“You are too kind,” my Slayer simpered, and for the life of me I could not fathom her plan.
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