by Rachel Aaron
“You’re panicking,” Eli said, his voice calm. “It’s been only three weeks. He probably hasn’t even found where he’s going. Slorn’s a powerful wizard. He can take care of himself.”
“But he’s not a fighter!” Pele said fiercely. She turned to Josef. “I know you beat Sted in Gaol. That was why he came to us, to get a new sword that could beat yours. He took my mother’s seed when we wouldn’t give him a sword. Please, I don’t know what else to do. The man is a monster. I can’t let my father face him alone. If you won’t help me, then tell me where to go, or tell me where to find Sted and I’ll help my father myself, just—”
She cut off when Eli stood up suddenly. “All right,” he said, running his hands through his hair. “I’ll help you. Just calm down.”
Pele’s eyes lit up. “Thank you!”
Eli waved his hand. For all her gratitude, he didn’t look happy at all. “Come up and have some dinner, and we’ll see about moving you into a real room.”
Pele shot up from the bed, grabbing Eli and hugging him tightly. “Thank you, thank you!”
“Yes,” Eli said, extricating himself from her grip. “Let’s go on up. We’ve been on the road all day and we’re tired. Let us get some food and rest and then we’ll see what’s to be done about our missing bear, all right?”
Pele nodded and, after embracing him one last time, ran up the stairs with a smile on her face. Eli followed more slowly, his smile quickly fading to a grimace. Nico and Josef exchanged a look as they followed Pele and the thief out of the cellar and into the deputy’s house, where he and Angeline were just getting supper on the table.
Dinner was a grand spread. There was pork and braised potatoes; some sort of pea soup, which was green, creamy, and delicious; roasted squash; and a large basket of fresh biscuits, golden and flaky and dripping with honeyed butter. Everyone ate with gusto, even Nico. Normally she despised eating. It felt too much like what the demon did, but her stomach was growling and she dove into the very human pleasure of stuffing herself full of delicious food.
Pele was stuffing herself too. The second Eli had agreed to help her she’d started to look better and was now eating her dark circles and pale cheeks away with a vigor only teenagers can achieve. Josef ate as he always did, efficiently and enormously, much to Angeline’s delight. The only person who wasn’t stuffing himself was Eli. He ate and made conversation, letting the deputy fill him in on what he’d missed being away from Home. Still, to Nico, who spent much of her time watching, it was clear Eli’s mind was somewhere else. He ate his food perfunctorily, not with the energy he usually showed toward a good meal after days of living off hardtack and whatever animal was unlucky enough to get caught in Josef’s traps. Though Eli appeared to be actively engaged in the deputy’s reports, Nico could see the slight glaze in his expression that meant he was really thinking of something else entirely, and whatever it was, he wasn’t happy about it.
After dinner, Pele wanted to discuss plans to rescue Slorn, but Eli gently turned her around and sent her to bed. She put up a fight, but not much of one. It was obvious she’d been sleeping even worse than she’d been eating. Angeline took her off to a bed that wasn’t in the basement while Eli said his good-nights to the deputy. Then, motioning for Josef and Nico to follow, he slipped out the door and into the night.
“Come on,” Josef said, standing up from his chair with a long-suffering sigh. “He’s planning something. Let’s find out what before he just goes and does it.”
Nico nodded and followed the swordsman out the door. They walked across the grassy square, following the dark outline of Eli’s gangly figure away from the bright houses and up toward the hills. When they reached the edge of the valley, he stopped suddenly and flopped down in the scruffy grass. Now that they were away from the town lights, the full moon was brighter than ever. Even without her demon-enhanced vision, Nico had no problem finding a flat spot of ground near Eli. Josef flopped down on the other side, dropping the Heart on the ground with a dull thunk.
Almost before they were seated, Eli began to speak.
“Well,” he said, his voice dripping with bile. “Some trip Home this has been. Can’t I even relax for one day without something coming up?”
“Don’t whine,” Josef said. “You could have said no.”
“Easy for you to say,” Eli snapped. “You don’t have a compassionate bone in your body. I’ve known the girl since she was ten, Josef. What was I supposed to say? ‘Sorry about your dad, but I’m on holiday. Good luck, chop chop’?” He flopped back on the grass with a disgusted sigh. “So much for lying low.”
For a while, no one said anything. Then, at last, Eli sat up again with a frustrated groan. “Anyway, this is all beside the point. Even if Pele hadn’t asked me, I’d have to go investigate. No matter how insufferable he can get, Slorn’s an old, old friend. We have to help him. He’ll never make us toys again if we don’t.” Eli tilted his head skyward, staring at the bright moon hanging alone in the black sky. “I only wish Slorn’d asked me himself. Then I could have at least gotten a huge favor out of the deal, maybe even free work. Now I’m stuck doing a sob job pro bono.”
“Can’t make money all the time,” Josef said with a shrug.
Eli’s only answer to that was a loud harrumph.
“Well,” Eli said after a long silence, “done is done. First thing now is to find Slorn.”
“Considering we’re talking about a man with a bear’s head, I don’t think it’ll be too hard,” Josef said. “It’s not like he can just blend in.”
“Don’t underestimate him,” Eli said, lying back on the grass again. “If it were that easy, Pele wouldn’t have come here. Slorn’s surprisingly skilled at not being noticed.”
“What about a broker?” Josef said. “Could we just pay one of them to find him like you did with the Fenzetti blade?”
Eli shook his head. “Brokers are great for finding inanimate objects but lousy at finding people. Also, we’re trying to stay low, remember? The last thing I need is a broker getting suspicious. Goin was way out on the borderlands, so it was worth the chance, but we’re in the middle of the Council Kingdoms. Any broker we could visit would probably have my poster on the wall. The moment I walked in I’d become a new commodity to sell.”
“So, what?” Josef said. “Do we start asking in the usual channels? Spreading money around?”
“No, no, no,” Eli said. “Far too risky, and I’m not spending cash on a job with no payout. Also, this is Slorn we’re talking about. If the usual tactics worked, the Shapers would have gotten him years ago. What we need is a new angle.” Eli began to grin. “Remember, we’re not just looking for a man. We’re also looking for a bear, and fortunately I know just who to ask when it comes to bears.”
Josef looked skeptical. “You never struck me as the bear hunter type.”
“I’m not,” Eli said, standing up with an extremely self-pleased smile. “And I didn’t say anything about hunters. Trust me, this is much better, and the best part is I won’t even have to use a favor. I’ll just cash in one of Slorn’s. It’s only fair that he should pay for his own rescue.”
“You seem awful confident,” Josef said, staring up at him. “Are you sure this is going to work?”
“Of course it will work,” Eli scoffed. “My plans always work.” His voice shifted at Josef’s oh-come-on look. “Well, perhaps not always as I’d first intended, but they do work. Anyway, it’s the only plan we’ve got.” Nico jumped as Eli’s hand settled on her hooded head. “I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of the consequences of letting the only man in the world capable of creating coats and manacles that can hold a demon captive vanish into the night.”
Josef gave him a dirty look. “Don’t use her to make your points.”
“Ah,” Eli said. “But the point has been made.” He gave Nico’s head one last pat before turning back toward town. “Come on, we need to get packed. We’ve got a long trip ahead of us.”
Josef di
dn’t move. He sat glaring at Eli’s back as the thief trotted down the hill. Finally, when Eli’s long shadow disappeared inside the house, Josef pushed himself off the ground with a sigh.
“He can be a real ass sometimes,” he grumbled, offering his hand to Nico.
“He is doing this for me,” Nico said. “At least partially.”
“Don’t be fooled,” Josef growled, pulling her up. “He’s doing it for himself. He lives for favor swapping as much as fame and thievery. This is just another move in whatever game he plays. Don’t let him trick you into thinking otherwise.”
“I know,” Nico said, but her words didn’t sound convincing, even to her. Josef could label and dismiss Eli’s reasons, but Nico couldn’t. After all, that whole business with the Fenzetti had been for her, same with the trip up to Slorn’s in the first place. It hadn’t bothered her then because she’d been a participating, worthwhile member of the team, doing her share and helping as she had been helped. Now…
Now you’re deadweight.
Nico closed her eyes.
Worse. The voice was low and laughing. You’re a liability without payoff, a bad piece of meat. The thief is no idiot. How long until he leaves you somewhere? He only uses you to keep the swordsman in tow, but even a muscle-brained lug like Josef will realize what a bad deal you’ve become sooner or later. What happens then, little Nico? What will you do?
Nico didn’t reply, though she wasn’t sure if that was because she knew better than to talk to the voice or because she didn’t have an answer.
Come, little girl. The voice was honey dripping down her throat. You already know how to help, don’t you?
But I don’t know. Nico winced and slammed her lips tight; the answering thought had been automatic.
Yes, you do. Think, if you can. Who is Slorn after?
This time Nico refused to let her mind go forward. It did her no good. The voice rolled right over her wall of silence.
He’s after Sted, the man who killed his wife and took the subject of their life’s work, Nivel’s precious seed. Sted is in my realm now, and you should know better than any that I always keep an eye on what belongs to me.
The memory overwhelmed her as the voice faded. She was standing in a room underground. She was older, powerful, standing beside a figure made out of darkness that meant more to her than any life. The figure took her hand, the long, cold fingers sliding across her palm, and a rush of loyalty, security, power, and safety sent her to her knees. The figure, the source of all her fealty, did not help her up. Instead, the cold hands reached and took her head, turning it toward the far end of the room. There, cut into the stone, was a map. A great map showing all the world, from the Council Kingdoms to the Immortal Empress’s lands and the great frozen country far to the north. It was carved in relief, the mountains standing up from the stone as sharp and cold as the real thing, and crouched on this tiny, perfect model were little black creatures with wispy beetle legs.
The figure made a small, beautiful gesture, and she understood. The black creatures were markers for something greater, their slow, crawling movements reflections of a larger scale.
My seeds, the figure’s voice hummed in her bones, masculine and resonant with a dark beauty that filled her with a terrible longing for home. Every single one of them, all across the world.
Nico swallowed.
Just ask. The cold hand reached up to stroke her cheek. Ask and all shall be given to you, my dearest daughter, seed of my own heart.
She clutched the long, cold fingers, tears flowing down her cheeks. “Yes, Master.”
“Nico!”
Her eyes shot open. She was sitting on the grassy slope by Eli’s town. Josef was leaning over her, his concerned face inches from her own. This close, she could see the pale scars running below his stubble. Nico flinched away, squeezing her eyes shut before he could see the tears in them.
“Are you all right?” He ran his hands over her limbs. “You fell down. What happened?”
“Nothing,” she said, ashamed at the dreamy lilt in her voice. The haze of the memory still clung to her mind, fogging her thoughts with overwhelming loss for the safety she’d felt standing beside the figure. Her body grew heavy as the memory of power faded, leaving her small and helpless as a blind grub on the grass. She wasn’t even sure if what she’d just seen was her own memory or a sent one, but the wetness on her face was real, and she wondered, not for the first time, if she was losing her mind.
You can’t lose what isn’t yours, the voice whispered. Every bit of you belongs to me, willingly given. Why do you hold back now?
“Leave me alone,” Nico whispered.
“What?” Josef leaned closer. “Did you say something?”
Tell him, the voice said. Just speak the truth. Tell him you can ask me to find Sted at any time, and through him, Slorn. Make them happy, or lie here and be a burden. Your choice, dearest.
Nico sat up, her coat twitching over her hands as she scrubbed her face. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m just tired.”
“Understandably,” Josef said, helping her up. “Let’s get to bed before Eli decides he needs to leave tonight.”
Nico nodded and started down the hill again, this time with Josef walking beside her, watching. His face was blank, but she knew him well enough to know he was worried. Well, she decided as she straightened up, he didn’t need to be. She wouldn’t lose, and she wouldn’t let them down. She’d find a way to be useful without the demon. She’d do everything she could to make sure Eli’s plan worked. She didn’t know what that was, but she’d do it. She didn’t need the voice.
But even as the thought spun through her head, she could feel the weakness coming back, the feeling of being lessened, of being lost, and with it, the echoing memory of the power she’d had in the memory. The power and security she could have again, if she would only ask. That feeling was the only answer the voice made, but it was an answer for which she had no retort. Tiny and beaten, she followed Josef into the house and shut the door on the night.
CHAPTER
5
The mist was still thick on the plains when three figures slipped out of the deputy’s house and into the sleeping town of Home. There was no one in the square to see them creep out through the window, or to see the large bag of foodstuffs they helped themselves to from the baker’s larder. Once they had shoved as much as they could carry into a flour sack, also pilfered, they vanished into the ghostly fog, slipping silently into the hills without a sound.
Across the grassy square, a young man slid down from his window and stretched the hours of waiting out of his joints. Finally, the thief had made his move. Shaking with excitement, he crept across his bedroom to the ostentatious writing desk his father had made for him out of a pair of matched thrones the mayor had brought in last year. He reached behind the desk’s left leg and felt around until his trembling fingers found the bit of extravagant carving he was looking for. Grinning, he pressed down, hard. There was a little clack of a latch, and a small, wooden compartment popped out by the desk’s foot, just above what had been the larger throne’s clawed armrest. His hands went greedily for the tiny compartment. He’d discovered it by accident a few months ago, and even his father didn’t know about it. He’d always wondered what a king would store in that secret place. Poison maybe, or state secrets. Whatever it had been, surely not even the secret stash of a king had ever held a treasure like this.
He raised his hand, bringing up a marble-sized sky-blue globe of crystal bound by silver wires to a silver chain. Gentle as a new father, he rolled the globe in a circle around his palm as he had been told. As it moved, the blue globe began to change color, shifting from clear, calm sky to the deeper, turbulent blue of the north sea. As the color shifted, something inside the globe began to move as well, showing the sphere was ready. After looking over his shoulder one last time, the young man crouched and cupped the globe to his mouth. Then, as softly as he could, he whispered, “Sara.”
&nbs
p; The response was immediate. The globe flashed between his fingers, and a woman’s voice, cross, clipped, and vaguely scratchy, answered. “Has he moved?”
“Yes,” the boy whispered. “All three of them left at dawn. They took a bunch of food with them.”
“A long trip then.” The woman’s voice paused, and he heard her let out a long breath. “What about the stranger girl?”
“The mayor met with her.” The young man was whispering quickly now, for the dawn was beginning to slip through his window, a sure sign that his mother would come looking for him soon. “Turns out he did know her. She’s staying at the deputy’s house now. Only name I could get for her was Pele.”
“Pele?” The woman’s voice was sharp as razors. “You’re sure it was Pele?”
“Yes,” the boy said, grinning. When she cut in like that, it meant she was pleased. “Pele, tall girl, very upset. She had this crazy knife on her, never seen one like it before.”
There was a pause from the other end, and then, “All right, good work.” He heard the scratching of a pen. “Thank you. Keep me posted if the mayor reappears or the girl tries to leave.”
“And my reward?” the boy said quickly.
The woman made an irritated sound. “Your reward is the same as ever. Three years of service, and then I will bring you to Zarin. All you have to do is keep reporting and not blow your cover and it’s a done deal. That is, unless you keep bothering me about it.”
“Yes, Sara,” the boy whispered, his voice shaking. “I’m sorry.”
“Just keep me informed,” she said. “And don’t do anything stupid. Remember, idiocy is its own cure in time.”
“Yes, Sara,” he said again, but the globe in his palm was already fading back to light blue, a sure sign that she was already gone.
He sneered at the globe. The woman might be his only chance at getting out of this nowhere backwater, but Powers, was she high-handed. One day, when he was in Zarin living like a lord with followers and women and a big city house, he’d make her swallow that sharp tongue.