“You’ve got her in the cellar?” Eli said. “You haven’t been treating her badly, I hope.”
“Of course not,” Derrik said, unbolting the large lock. “I’ve got a nice little room down here I use for storing grain. It’s dry and comfortable, but this door’s the only way out. I thought it would be best, considering … Anyway, she hasn’t complained, just sits and waits for you.”
Eli nodded and, as soon as the doors were open, started down the stairs. “Wait here,” he said when the deputy began to follow him. “We won’t be long.”
Looking a little taken aback, the man nodded and stepped aside, letting Eli, Josef, and Nico climb down into the cellar.
It was just as the man had said, a small, dry room in the cellar with a lamp and a bed and a stack of books that had obviously been brought down from the house above. Sitting on the edge of the bed was a familiar girl in hunter’s
leathers with a long, lovely knife at her hip and dark circles under her eyes, as though she’d been crying.
Eli stopped at the foot of the stairs and gave her a long, serious look. “Hello, Pele.”
The girl nodded. “Eli.”
Eli grabbed a stool from the corner and set it down beside her. “You chose a difficult way of getting in touch, you know,” he said, sitting down with a long sigh. “Why not just get your father to reach me? Slorn has more tricks than any three bears put together.”
“If I could do that, I wouldn’t need you in the first place,” Pele said, her voice going a bit ragged. “My father’s … Slorn’s gone missing.”
There was a long silence.
“Missing?” Eli said at last. “Men like Slorn don’t just go missing.” He leaned forward and grasped Pele’s hand. “What happened?”
Pele didn’t try to take her hand back. Instead, she leaned forward, blinking back tears, and began to tell her story.
By the time she finished, Eli was looking grim indeed, and Pele was sobbing openly.
“After what Sted did to my mother, Father was inconsolable,” she said, her voice quivering. “He locked himself in his workroom and wouldn’t come out for two days no matter how I beat on the door. Then, on the third morning, he came out dressed in traveling gear and said he was going after Sted.” Pele took a deep breath. “I wanted to go with him, but he said someone had to stay and take care of the house. He said he had to go, that he’d made a promise to the League of Storms to keep the seed secret and safe. That it was the only reason the League had let
him keep Mother alive in the first place. So he left and I stayed behind. He said he’d contact me when he knew something, but that was three weeks ago. Since then, I’ve heard nothing. Please.” She gripped Eli’s hand. “Please, Eli, you’re one of his oldest friends. You have to help me find him.”
Eli calmly began extricating his fingers from her grasp. “Pele,” he said gently. “I’m a thief, all right? This isn’t really my area of expertise. Surely there’s someone else—”
Pele refused to let go. “But you go everywhere. You know all sorts of things. And there is no one else. Father took all his contacts with him. I only knew where you were because this village is listed as your delivery address in our records.”
“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 didn’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.