by Rachel Aaron
The bear sat down again with a great crash. “Then find Slorn yourself. ”
“Come on,” Eli said, a little more desperately. “You just said Slorn was like your son. How—”
“He is my son, as much as any bear,” Gredit growled. “If he wished for my help, he would have asked for it, not sent you. But no message have I received, no cry for aid. You are the one asking, not Slorn, so you must pay the price. ” He tilted his enormous head. “I will tell you that Slorn is far from here. If he’s in as much danger as you seem to think, he will certainly die before you can find him on your own. I’m your only chance. ”
“Surely we can come to some other arrangement,” Eli said. “I have many other talents besides being the favorite. ”
The great bear tossed his head. “This is not a negotiation, human. The only reason you are still alive right now is because you are the favorite. ”
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Eli took another step forward. “But—”
“Call down the White Lady or get out. ”
Nico shrank back at the menace in Gredit’s voice. All through the cave, bears were growling through clenched teeth. The open menace was clear enough that even spirit-deaf Josef went for his sword, but Eli’s hand stopped him before he could draw.
“It seems we are at an impasse,” Eli said, stepping back again. “Thank you for your hospitality, Lord Bear, but your price is too rich for my blood.
We’ll find Slorn on our own. ”
“So you say. ” The great bear was grinning now. “But you’ll be back. I’m your only path to saving Slorn, and you don’t seem like a human who takes failure on the chin. ” The other bears laughed at that, which only made Gredit grin wider. “See you soon, favorite of the Shepherdess. ”
Eli gave him a polite smile and a half bow before turning on his heel and marching toward the cave mouth. Josef and Nico fell in behind him, keeping right on his heels as the sound of laughing bears followed them out into the sunlight.
Eli marched down the valley, fists clenched. When he reached the bottom, he jumped over the stream and started up the other side, climbing with a singleness of focus that was hard to keep up with. Nico was covered in sweat by the time they cleared the valley’s edge, and even Josef was breathing hard. Eli took no notice. He simply flung himself down on a sunny bit of crumbled stone and glared as hard as he could down the valley at the cave now hidden by thick trees.
“Stupid, presumptuous, stubborn bears. ”
Josef crossed his arms over his chest. “You want to translate all that growling for me so I know what you’re talking about?”
“Oh”—Eli flung his hands out in frustration—“spirit politics. He knows where Slorn is, but he won’t tell me unless I do something I swore never to do again. ”
“Uh-huh. ” Josef scowled down at him. “And what is that?”
“Something I’m not going to talk about,” Eli said. “My plan didn’t work out, alright? Let’s just leave it at that. ”
“No,” Josef said, and Nico cowered at the anger in his voice. “Don’t treat me like an idiot just because I could only hear half the conversation. The bear wanted something and you wouldn’t give it. Why? What’s more important than finding Slorn?”
“You care a lot about Slorn all of a sudden,” Eli said, glaring at the swordsman.
“Don’t change the subject,” Josef snarled, leaning menacingly forward. “Besides the fact that he’s always been a stand-up sort of guy by us, Slorn is the only man who can make Nico the tools she needs to fight off the seed inside her. If that bear knows where he is, then we need to give that bear what he wants. ”
“You think it’s that simple?” Eli yelled. “How long have we been working together, Josef? Two years? Three? And how many times in those years have I passed up an opportunity to do things the easy way?”
“Every time,” Josef said.
“Never,” Eli snapped back. “If I could just give the bear what he wants and walk off happy, I would, but I can’t. Not this time. So let’s just move on. ”
“No,” Josef said again, louder than before. “How can I trust you to do the right thing when you won’t even tell me why? For all I know this is the easy way out for you. You tried to find Slorn, it didn’t work out, oh well, back to thievery. ” He stared at Eli’s suddenly downcast eyes. “That’s it, isn’t it?
You’re just going to let him go, aren’t you?”
“What else am I supposed to do?” Eli shouted. “The bears won’t help me. I can’t find Slorn on my own, and in any case, Heinricht didn’t even directly ask for my help. For all I know Pele’s overreacting and Slorn has the situation well in hand. I tried my best, alright? We’ve spent three muddy, profitless, fameless weeks on this nonsense. I think even Slorn would agree we gave it our best shot. But it’s over. We lost. Slorn could be anywhere. He could be on the other side of the world and we wouldn’t know. We’d have a better chance of convincing the Spirit Court to give me Spiritualist of the Year than of finding our bear man at this point. ”
Eli was flailing his arms by the end, but Josef didn’t even flinch. “That’s still not an answer,” he said. “As I see it, you’re the one making this difficult.
Why won’t you give them what they want?”
“What part of ‘I can’t’ don’t you understand?” Eli shouted.
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Josef crossed his arms. “Maybe it would be easier to understand if you told me what it was?”
“So that’s it,” Eli scoffed. “You don’t trust me. ”
“Oh, I trust you,” Josef said. “I trust you to be a con man, a liar, and a thief. That’s why I put up with you, because you’re the best at what you do. But that same stellar reputation makes it hard to take what you say at face value. ”
Eli gave him a nasty look. “Do I ever ask you about your past, Josef? Do I ever pry? No, I respect and trust you to handle your affairs and do your job. ” He whirled to face Nico, and she shrank back farther still. “Do I ever ask you how you got your seed? Have I pressed you at all about what happened in Gaol, or why you’ve suddenly become the weak little girl you always appeared to be?”
“That’s out of line!” Josef shouted, stepping between Nico and Eli.
“Is it?” Eli shouted back. “She’s just as much a part of this as either of us. Despite your mother-hen routine, she can speak for herself. We’re all thieves together in this. ”
“This isn’t a heist, Eli!” Josef roared. “If Slorn dies because of your pride or whatever idiocy keeps you from going back in that cave and finding out what we need to know, we’re not losing some gold or risking imprisonment. If we can’t get Slorn, Nico’s the one who’s going to lose. ” Josef reached out and grabbed Nico’s arm, dragging her between him and Eli. “Coats wear out,” he said, pulling her coat back to reveal her wrist, where the silver cuff danced against her thin arm. “So do manacles. If there’s no one there to replace them, then you’re sending her into battle naked. How could you do that to someone you claim to trust as one of your own?”
Eli glared at him around Nico’s upthrust hand. “I won’t call Benehime,” he said, his voice so quiet the words were more breath than sound.
Josef’s glare was cold and sharp. “So you won’t do what it takes to save Slorn?” he said. “You’ll break your trust with Nico, your trust with me, and you won’t even tell us why. ”
“No,” Eli whispered. “But I will tell you this. ” He leaned in until his cheek brushed Nico’s arm. “I will break every oath I have before I give up my freedom. ”
Josef’s muscles tensed, and Nico could feel his fist closing, his fingers tightening on her arm. Eli went stiff as well, his blue eyes cold and guarded.
Nico could barely breathe from the tension in the air. She’d seen them fight many times, but never like this. Never seriously.
And it’s all your fault. The voice in
her head was closer than ever, barbed and laughing. Josef wouldn’t even care about the bear if it wasn’t for you.
Now you’re about to break up one of the most enduring friendships of our age, and all because you’re too weak to live without props from your little missing Shaper bear.
A terrible chill went through Nico’s body. Eli and Josef were the only people who mattered to her, and they were fighting, destroying years of trust, all because of her. She had to stop it, but how?
You know how. An image filled Nico’s mind, a great black mountain where snow never fell and wind never blew. It was there for only an instant, but the old terror at seeing it nearly made her brain go numb.
You know how to find Sted, the voice said as the image faded. I showed you before. Find Sted and you find Slorn. This is your chance to be the solution instead of the problem. All you have to do is stop being a coward. But do it quickly, while you still have people left to worry about.
Another image flashed across her mind. It was there less than a second, but it was sharp enough to burn into her brain. Eli walking one way, Josef walking another, both of them looking over their shoulders at her in accusing hatred as they left her behind. Alone.
“Stop!” Nico shouted.
Her voice echoed across the valley, and both men jumped. Nico stared at them, horribly aware of the tears rolling down her face. She could still see the hatred in their eyes.
“Stop,” she said again, quietly now. Josef, alarmed and looking a bit surprised, carefully released her wrist and stepped back. Eli did as well.
“I know how to find Slorn,” she said, the words tumbling over one another in her rush to get them out. “All we have to do is find Sted. He’s the one Slorn’s after. ”
“Find Sted?” Eli said, mulling it over. “How?”
Nico took a deep breath. After this, there was no turning back. “Sted has Nivel’s demonseed inside him. We can find it easily if we go to the place where all demonseed are connected. ”
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Josef gave her a guarded look. “Where?”
“The Dead Mountain. ”
Josef sucked in a breath, but Eli’s eyes flashed at the possibility.
“Step into the demon hive itself,” he said thoughtfully. “Find the bear by finding the bait. ” His eyebrows arched. “Sounds brilliant. ”
“Sounds dangerous,” Josef said, staring at Nico. “Can you even go there?”
“No,” Nico said, her voice thick and halting. It had never been spoken, but she knew deep in her soul that if she ever set foot on that black slope, she would never leave it again. “But I can take you to the edge. ”
“And we can take it from there,” Eli said, grinning. “I’ve always wanted to know what was on the demon’s mountain. If even a tenth of the stories are true, it’s bound to be a macabre wonder of the world. And let’s not forget the thrill of breaking into a place even the League won’t go. ”
“That had better not be what this is about,” Josef growled.
“Of course not!” Eli looked hurt. “But you can’t fault me for seeing the many side benefits of Nico’s delightful plan, which solves our problem at no cost to ourselves. ”
“Don’t be so sure,” Josef said. “I don’t know much about these things, but I don’t think the Dead Mountain is a place you just walk into. ”
“Neither was the fortress of Gaol,” Eli said with a smile. “That’s the whole point of walking in. ”
The swordsman gave him a dirty look. “Don’t turn this into one of your stunts. You’re still not off the hook. ”
Eli’s face grew deathly serious. “I didn’t imagine I would be. Are you in on this, or are you going to be difficult?”
Josef put a hand on the Heart of War’s hilt. “That depends on her,” he said, and turned his stony glare to Nico. “If you want to do this, Nico, I’m behind you, but only if you really want to. Don’t let Eli make this about him. ”
Eli harrumphed at that. Nico and Josef ignored him. “I want to help,” Nico said. “I owe Slorn a greater debt than any of us. ”
Josef nodded. “Then lead on. ”
Nico closed her eyes, opening her soul to the nagging pull in her bones she’d been ignoring all the way north. Her feet turned of their own accord, and when she opened her eyes again, she was facing north and west. Though she could not see it yet, and wouldn’t for a long time, she knew she was pointed directly at the Dead Mountain.
As she stepped forward, she tried to marshal the feeling that she was doing the right thing. That she was helping Eli and Josef instead of being a burden for once. But every step left an ashy taste on her tongue and a dull pain in her legs. Deep inside her mind, scraping the bottom of her thoughts, she could feel the voice smiling. That alone chilled her more than the cold wind, and no matter how tight she pulled her coat, she could not get warm again.
CHAPTER
8
They climbed for three days, moving ever higher into the sharp, gray mountains. The trees vanished on the second day, replaced by thorny shrubs, and then nothing, just endless slopes of bare stone and snow. At night, great gusts blew in icy sheets across their meager campsite, leaving tracks of frost on the path that Josef had to break up with his boots before they could move on. Still, despite none of them being dressed for mountain weather, they made good time, mostly thanks to Karon, Eli’s lava spirit.
As soon as the cold became uncomfortable, Eli had opened his shirt and had a nice long chat with the burn on his chest. Karon was happy to help them stick it to the ice and wind spirits, and he cheerfully kept the air around Eli as warm and dry as a smokehouse.
“I only wish it didn’t reek of sulfur,” Josef said, pressing up the mountainside. “I’d almost rather deal with the cold. ”
“Well, don’t let me stop you,” Eli huffed, though even he looked a little green. “Who am I to stand between a man and his frostbite?”
Nico would have chuckled at that, but even a smile felt out of place on the gray slopes. They were getting close. Though she kept her hood down and her eyes on the path, it did little good. She could see the mountain all the time now, even when she closed her eyes, which she did as little as possible. It only made her more aware that she was never alone. The voice sat like a lump in her mind, rarely speaking but ever present, a constant weight that could not be removed or ignored.
“Nico?”
She jumped at her name and looked to see Eli staring at her.
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“You stopped. Are you alright?”
Nico swallowed. She didn’t remember stopping. “I’m fine,” she said softly.
Eli gave her a look of superb disbelief, and she hurried forward, scurrying up the mountain until she was at the edge of Karon’s warmth.
If you embraced what you were there would be no need for these charades, the voice tsked. If the thief and the swordsman are so important to you, why bother fighting this fight we both know you’re going to lose? What do you hope to gain? Admit it, everyone would be so much happier if you just accepted your fate.
Nico clenched her jaw and focused on pulling herself up the slope. Eli followed behind her, watching her back with a cautious, closed expression.
Josef reached the top of the slope first. He’d taken to pushing forward, plowing through the snow to make a path for the others before falling back to the circle of Karon’s heat to warm up again. This time he waited for them, standing impatiently at the peak while Nico and Eli trudged the last fifty icy feet. The top of the slope was not the top of the mountain, however. Instead, they came out in a short, narrow pass between two peaks. It was a forbidding place, a wide alley of stone paved with sharp, icy rocks and crusted snow, but it was sheltered from the wind and that was enough to make it feel almost homey.
“At last,” Eli said. “I thought we’d be climbing forever. ”
“We may not be done yet,” Josef answered, pic
king his way down the pass. “Don’t get too cozy. ”
Eli’s mouth twitched, but he said nothing. Though they were speaking mostly as usual, Nico was keenly aware that Josef and Eli still weren’t looking directly at each other. It made sense, of course. No matter how close the friendship, the things they’d said outside the bear’s cave couldn’t be forgotten as easily as that. Still, Nico couldn’t even look at them together without feeling a horrible pang of guilt. She had to find Slorn as soon as possible, she thought, hurrying down the pass after Josef. The sooner the pressure was lifted and the problem was resolved, the sooner they could all go back to how they were before.
She caught up to Josef quickly, not because she was moving so quickly but because the swordsman had stopped. He was standing at the other end of the sheltered pass, staring out at the white landscape beyond with a hard look on his face. She didn’t have to ask him what he saw; she could feel it waiting out there, beyond the snow.
“We’re here, aren’t we?” Josef said softly.
Nico could only nod, forcing her foot to take the last, terrified step to stand beside him and look out on their final destination.
The pass between the mountains let out on a steep, snow-covered slope that plunged down into a little valley. Snow blew in sheets across it, hiding everything else behind a blanket of pure white, but here and there the wall of snow thinned, allowing a fleeting glimpse of the mountain at the other end of the valley. It towered above the other peaks, twice as high as any of the lesser mountains that ringed it, its cold, black stone showing through the blowing snow like dark water under ice.
“There’s no snow on its slopes,” Josef said, squinting against the white storm.
“No,” Eli said, stepping up to join them and bringing the welcome sphere of warmth with him. “No snow, no water, just dry, dusty stone, and the cold, of course. ” He glanced at Nico. “Or so I’ve heard. ”
Nico looked away. She didn’t know how to answer that. All the way here she’d been probing her mind, trying to dig up memories about her time on the mountain. The closer they came, the more familiar things had felt, but a black haze hung over her mind, drawing a curtain between the morning Josef found her from everything before it. Nico frowned. Perhaps the demon ate her memories as well as her soul. Perhaps she really was starting to lose her mind.