by Rachel Aaron
Pele fumbled for her blade, her hands trembling in panic, but Slorn’s calm never faltered, even with Sted’s screaming mouth an inch from his black nose.
“You will unhand me,” he said.
“Or what?” Sted growled.
Slorn smiled, and the fibers of his collar where Sted was holding him suddenly unraveled. Sted was left gripping air as Slorn dropped down. The Shaper landed neatly, and he had just enough time to give Sted a toothy smile before the stair beneath the swordsman’s feet snapped like a green branch, launching the larger man into the night. Sted was too surprised to make a sound. He flew through the air, landing with a bone-snapping crack on the opposite slope. He bounced once and then began to slide into the ravine as the leaves that might have stopped his fall skittered away from the source of Slorn’s displeasure.
Sted slid all the way to the bottom of the little gorge, landing with a splash in the icy stream. Twenty feet up, Slorn stared down from his stairs, a smirk on his muzzle as his torn collar began to mend itself. “This is my land, Sted,” he said calmly. “You don’t get to make demands here. Any tacit welcome you had as a League member is now gone, and I suggest you go as well. The forest is unkind to those who threaten me.”
As he spoke, a large outcropping of rocks on the slope above Sted began to creak menacingly, but Sted heard none of it. “This isn’t over!” he screamed. “You owe me!”
Slorn gave him a final long, disgusted look before turning and marching silently back into the house, pushing Pele ahead of him. The moment the door closed, the house began to move, climbing expertly along the ravine edge on its wooden chicken legs. From the window, Pele could see Sted flailing through the creek after them, but the trees along the water were barring his way, tripping him with their roots and tangling him in their branches. The last thing Pele saw before Sted vanished into the dark was Sted falling into the water, his one arm still reaching out for the retreating house.
“Will he come after us?” she whispered.
“He’ll try,” Slorn said, easing Sted’s broken blade to sleep before tossing it into a barrel full of damaged parts. “The League doesn’t take men who give up easily. But don’t be afraid; the woods are a dangerous enemy and he’s no wizard.”
He gave her a yellow-toothed smile and disappeared into his workroom. Pele looked out the window one last time. The dark woods sped by outside as the house crawled north faster than a man could run, farther into the mountains, leaving no footprints behind.
In the dull light just before morning, Nivel sat as she always sat, straight on her rock with her hands folded across her lap. High overhead, the treetops, flat, black shapes against the gray sky, rocked in the wind, but here in her dry ravine it was silent, except for her manacles. As always, the metal cuffs buzzed against her skin. Their silver outsides were gnawed away in places, revealing the dense steel core. Nivel shifted. The decay was unsettling. Slorn had made the manacles for her just a month ago, but each new set seemed to wear out quicker than the one before. Nivel’s lips tightened. She knew what that meant, even if she’d never seen it happen. She knew.
Of course you know. The voice sounded almost bored. You always knew you would lose in the end.
Nivel folded her hands tighter.
I don’t see why you’re putting your family through this, it said. How selfish, fighting a losing battle on their time. You should just let go, let me have you, and set them free. Do you think your husband likes having a bear’s head?
An image flashed before her eyes, Slorn as he’d looked fifteen years ago when they were first married. But the memory had that strange crispness to it that told her it was the demon’s sending, and not her own. It liked to riffle through her mind for weapons, but this was a battle they’d been fighting for a long time now, and Nivel was too wise for these old tricks. She closed her eyes against the image and kept her silence. Speaking to the voice only gave it more power, and she had no more to give.
She was finding something else to think about when a strange shadow appeared at the edge of her ravine. Nivel snapped her head up. It was far too early for Slorn or Pele, and no spirit would come near the warding. It could be a phantom. The demon had been making her see things that weren’t there for years. Yet, from the confusion in her head, she felt that this was as much a surprise to it as to her. That terrified Nivel more than any false vision. She couldn’t afford surprises.
The figure leaned over the edge of the ravine, peering down, and she saw it was a man. A large man with a bald head and a missing left arm. He had bandages across his torso and scars everywhere else. His skin was filthy and scratched all over, as though he’d been wrestling with a thornbush, and his eyes were the eyes of a madman.
He jumped down without a word, landing in a crouch on the sandy bed of the dead creek. He stayed in that crouch, looking around until he spotted her a few feet in front of him.
“There you are,” he said, a crooked grin spreading across his face. “Took me awhile to find this place, but I knew the bear man wouldn’t take his house too far from his big secret.” He took a step forward, his boots dragging through the dry sand. “They tried to keep it away from us, back at headquarters, but the Lord of Storms has a loud voice and no love for you. To hear him talk, I thought you were some sort of monster, a barely controlled disaster waiting to happen, but you’re just a woman.”
Nivel glared at him. Her eyes were burning, a sure sign they were glowing, but for once she was glad. The large man didn’t look so confident anymore. “Who are you?” she said. “Are you League?” Had her time come at last?
“Berek Sted,” the man answered, eyeing her more carefully. “And no, not League. You’re a demonseed, aren’t you? The one Slorn’s been experimenting on, trying to find a cure?”
“We have been experimenting together,” Nivel said testily.
The man shrugged. “But you have a demon inside you, right? I want to talk to it.”
Nivel recoiled. “Where is Slorn? How did you get here through the trees?”
“Trees can be bashed down like everything else,” Sted said. “As for the bear man, he’s not my problem anymore. Are you going to let me talk to the demon, or am I going to have to force it out?” He looked her up and down. “I may not be League anymore, but even I can tell it wouldn’t take much. You’re so close to the change I’m surprised you can keep a human form.”
“Being close to the edge doesn’t mean jumping over,” Nivel said. “You League types never appreciated the difference, but then, your lot never was any good at subtleties.”
“Don’t talk to me about the League!” Sted growled, stepping closer. “I’m here on my own. You see, I have a fight to win, and that thing inside you is going to help me.” He took another step. “I’ve seen the kind of power it can give. If it makes a little girl into a monster who can break my arm, how much stronger will it make me?” His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. “Let me talk to the demon!”
Before she knew what was happening, Nivel lashed out. She kicked him, hard, and Sted flew backward, crashing into the wall of the ravine with enough force to crack the stone. For a moment Nivel just stood there, panting, and then she realized what she’d done.
“No,” she whispered, falling to her knees as the demon-given power roared through her. Her wrists, ankles, and neck burned as the last bits of her manacles dissolved. “No no no no.”
Yes.
The voice was roaring in her mind, louder even than her terror. But even as it laughed in triumph, Nivel was not beaten. With a wordless cry of rage, she threw open her spirit. For the first time in a decade, power surged through her, filling her until she thought she would burst. Her own soul felt dark and slimy against her mind, polluted by the creature who had lived in it for so long. Even so, she grabbed her power with the intense focus Shaper wizards train for years to master. Grabbed it and turned it inward.
The laughter stopped. What are you doing?
“I didn’t fight this long to lose now
,” Nivel whispered around a mouth that was no longer fully human. “I didn’t put my family through this to lose to you.”
You answered me at last, the voice crowed triumphantly. Now I really have won. Rest, Nivel, you fought long and hard. Give up; you deserve it.
Nivel opened her soul wider still, forcing her will stronger and stronger until she almost matched the demon. “No,” she said. “Never.” Just a little further. Just a little further.
A hand closed on her throat.
Nivel’s eyes shot open. Sted was standing over her, his fingers on her neck, bearing down. She began to choke, beating against him with her fists, but her blows were as weak as a child’s. Her demon strength was gone.
Of course, dear. Why would I give you anything you so clearly do not want?
Nivel choked again. She couldn’t tell if the voice had been in her head or if she had spoken the words herself. The demon drenched her, flooding through her open soul even as it collapsed. All she could see was Sted above her, laughing as he crushed her throat.
I can kill him for you. The words were a whisper in her ear. All you have to do is let me.
Nivel’s chest began to convulse, and she realized she was laughing.
“You should know by now,” she whispered as she dangled from Sted’s hand, “I’d rather die to a stranger than give in to you.”
Her breath was gone now, and she could feel her body growing heavy. Still, she wasn’t afraid. After ten years of fighting, death felt like a release. She could feel the demon’s frustration as her consciousness dimmed, feel it struggling to grab final control of her mind and force the awakening. But it was too late. She was dying, but she was dying as a human. Nivel felt her lips curl into a smile. She may have lost, but so had the demon, and that was as great a victory as she could hope for. Clinging to that final, happy thought, Nivel let the demon, and the last shreds of her life, go. Her last thought was a fuzzy image of her husband, fully human and happy, holding their newborn daughter. She ran to him, arms out and free, as a final, welcome silence fell over her mind.
Sted stood panting in the dark ravine, clutching the neck of the dead demonseed. He could have dropped her at any time, and his muscles begged him to, but Sted ignored them. The bitch was dead—he was sure of it—but she’d died smiling. That was never good. Worse, she was still human. He may have been in the League of Storms for only half a year, but even he’d paid enough attention to know that any demonseed past its first week of gestation should change on death. So why was the thin body hanging from his hand still human?
He was mulling this over when he felt a familiar burning sensation against his fingers. He cursed and jumped back, dropping the body. The woman crumpled to the ground. Then, like a puppet with its strings caught, she jerked. Sted sucked in his breath. The body jerked again, sitting up stiffly. Its back was to Sted, and he briefly considered running before dismissing the idea with a sneer. Men didn’t run. So he stood firm in the sand, watching as the corpse turned slowly to look at him.
It was only when he saw its eyes that he was truly afraid. The woman’s eyes were enormous, and bright as lanterns. They fixed on him like snake eyes on a mouse, and the creature, for he knew for certain there was nothing human left in the body before him, gave him a small, cold smile. “You wanted to speak with me, yes?”
Sted flinched. The voice coming out of the woman’s body was nothing like the voice she had used in life. It was low, strong, masculine, and extremely wrong sounding. Something in it made him want to run, to hide, to cower like a rabbit before a predator. It was a deep, primal need, and for a long moment he had to fight himself to stay still. In the end, however, he stood firm in the sand as the creature in the woman’s body examined him.
“You expected something grander,” it said bitterly. “So did I. But that woman trapped me at the very end, and if I hadn’t taken a bit of you just now, this seed would have died with her.” It sighed with a hiss. “Such a waste. This is one of my oldest surviving seeds. If it could have completed the awakening, this cursed trap of a valley would be a very different place right now, and you, dear sheep, would be on your way to the mists.”
Sted swallowed. He was barely following this, but the threat in the creature’s words was clear enough for a deaf man. Every instinct he had was screaming at him to run, but Sted held fast. After all, he’d come here for a reason, and he wasn’t leaving until he got what he wanted.
“You’re the demon, then?” he said, standing up straight. “Good, I wanted to talk to you. Seeing how you admitted just now that you wouldn’t be here without me, I think you should listen carefully.”
The creature chuckled. “Don’t think too highly of yourself, Berek Sted. I would have beaten this girl in a few months anyway had you not interfered, and had a proper awakening.” The woman’s head tilted, and the creature’s voice grew smooth. “Still, let’s not fret on particulars. I know why you came here. I saw it just now”—it tapped its head with one of Nivel’s long, pale fingers—“in your mind. You want the power to pay back the Heart of War and its wielder, plus one of my own errant children, for your rather pathetic defeat.”
“I wasn’t defeated!” Sted shouted. “The League sent me in unprepared with a faulty weapon. If I’d had the power to match that bastard’s sword, I would have slaughtered them both! Instead, the coward took my arm, humiliated me, denied me a warrior’s death! I won’t rest until I pay him back in full!”
The creature gave him a long look. “Under usual circumstances, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to help you. It takes just the right kind of soul to provide what my seeds need to blossom, souls inevitably belonging to those members of your species who are less deaf than the rest, whom you call wizards. Sadly, you’re deafer than most and too old as well, so I cannot give you a seed.”
Sted’s eyes narrowed. “You’re hardly in a position to refuse me, corpse dweller. I may be a one-armed cripple, but I can still bash that body in and reduce your precious seed to a dead nub, so you’d best reconsider.”
The creature in the corpse laughed. “Your ignorance is both astounding and refreshing. I can see why they kicked you out. However, while I can’t give you a seed, perhaps we can come to an arrangement.”
Sted leaned back. “What do you mean?”
The creature gestured at Nivel’s chest. “The woman, Nivel, tended her seed for years, far, far longer than any of my others, holding it back through sheer will. A formidable trick, but it had quite the unintended effect. While a seed’s awakening can be prevented by the host’s will, nothing can stop its growth. Through Nivel’s stubborn refusal to give in, she inadvertently created inside herself a seed more powerful than anything I could otherwise get through my formidable prison. Indeed, she has become, almost through accident, the second-most-powerful shard of myself I have ever created.” It tapped Nivel’s lips. “I am speaking to you through a full-grown seed, steeped in power, yet unawakened. Your meager soul may not be fit to bear a new seed, but it can keep this one alive. So, Berek Sted, let me make you a deal. I will give you Nivel’s seed and all the power she put into it over ten years of fighting. The seed will give you strength, quickness, and all the gifts I graciously bestow upon my children who do my work in the world. I will set it up so that the Heart of War will come to you. You will have power, eternal life, so long as you can keep it, and the opportunity to thrash Josef Liechten into the ground. I’ll even give you your arm back. Is that not generous?”
Berek Sted swallowed and clutched his bandaged stump. “And what price do you charge for this?”
The creature smiled. “Obedience.”
“I’m no one’s slave,” Sted spat out.
“Who said anything about slaves?” the demon said. “You will be my weapon. An unbeatable weapon, greater even than the Heart of War itself. What do you say, do we have a deal?”
Sted stroked the stub of his arm. He’d sworn never to take another order, but he could not beat Liechten as a cripple. His League powers we
re gone. His skin was as cuttable and weak as any man’s. If he was going to beat the Heart, he needed an edge at any cost.
“And you swear I’ll get to fight Liechten?” Sted said. “Man to man, fair and square?”
The demon shrugged. “If fair is what you like, certainly.”
Sted nodded. “Then you have your deal.”
The creature grinned inhumanly wide, showing a full mouth of teeth and gums. “Welcome to the mountain,” it said, its voice a hissing whisper. “Berek Sted.”
As the creature spoke his name, the corpse of Nivel jumped forward. It moved impossibly fast, slamming its hands into Sted’s bandaged stomach. Sted grunted and fell back as the wounds opened, and he felt something crawl into him. Crawl was the only word to describe it. A shadow fell from the dead woman’s hands into his stomach, galloping into him on waves of fear, revulsion, and bitter cold. Then, as quickly as it had started, it was over. The woman’s corpse flopped to the ground, lifeless again. Sted stood panting, grasping his stomach, but even as he clutched his injured flesh, he felt the skin knitting together under his fingers. Suddenly, the dark shadows of the ravine were clear. The dark was still there, but he could see perfectly. He felt ten years younger, stronger than ever, whole. He had just a moment to revel in this feeling before a crippling pain in his arm sent him to his knees. He turned in horror just in time to see the stump at the end of his shoulder burst open as a hand pushed its way out of his flesh.
Sted cried out in terror. It was no human hand. It was black and shiny, like a bug’s shell, and tipped with five long fingers, human looking but wrong. The hand clenched and grasped, pulling itself out of his arm inch by agonizing inch. An eternity of pain later, it stopped, and a new, black arm slightly longer than his own hung from his shoulder, meeting his body in a mash of flesh that hurt to look at.
Sted stumbled back in horror, but the black arm caught him before he could fall. He stopped and stared at the new limb, wiggling each long, sharp claw just as he would his normal fingers. The more he moved the arm, the more he felt its power. The claws were sharp enough to cut bone, and the black skin was as hard as obsidian. He stood there a moment longer, clenching and unclenching his new fist as a smile began to spread over his face.