“How many?” Josef said again.
Izo ran a hand through his thinning hair. “ Twenty-two, not counting apprentices.”
Josef arched his eyebrows, impressed. “Good. Tell
them all to start making swords. I’m going to need a hundred at least, preferably more, made from the blackest, cheapest metal you can give me.”
“What game is this?” Izo said. “You’ve got the greatest awakened sword in the world right there on your chest. Why should I waste my men and resources making you pot-metal blades?”
Josef lay back again. “Those are my terms,” he said. “If you don’t like them, find someone else to fight Sted.”
Izo looked down with a snarl. “All right, a hundred blades. Anything else?”
“Yes,” Josef said. “I’m still healing. If you want me in any condition to fight in three days, you’ll keep yourself and your doctors away. The only person I want staying with me is Nico. Everyone else will have to leave.”
“Done,” Izo said, turning to face Tesset. “You don’t have a problem leaving the girl here?”
Sparrow opened his mouth to protest, but Tesset was faster. “Not if I am allowed to stay with her as her guard.”
Josef looked at Nico, who gave him the thinnest hint of a nod.
“I’m fine with that,” Josef said, making himself comfortable again. “Remember, don’t touch me for three days or I won’t be fit to fight an old man like you, much less a monster like Sted.”
Izo seethed with rage, but turned away without a retort. “You,” he said, glaring at Tesset. “Keep an eye on both of them. Nothing is to disturb his sleep. If the Council messes this up for me, I’ll hang all of you by your own guts, just see if I don’t. And you”—he turned to Sparrow—“I hope you talked with your Sara, because the plan is going ahead as agreed.”
“Assuming, of course, you hold up your end,” Sparrow said.
Izo bared his teeth. “You’ll have Monpress, make no mistake. No one steals from Izo.”
He made a rude gesture, just for good measure, and then stomped out of the infirmary, shouting for his guards. Sparrow frowned and started speaking with Tesset in a low, hushed voice, but Nico didn’t bother to listen. She walked to Josef’s bedside, her feet silent on the wooden floor, and sat down on the stool beside him.
She’d thought he was already asleep again, but Josef opened his eyes when she sat down, giving her a weak smile. “Glad you made it,” he said softly. “Everything all right?”
“We’re prisoners,” Nico answered. “And Sted’s got Eli.”
Josef thought about this for a moment and then gave a tiny, pained shrug. “We’ve gotten out of worse.”
Nico tried to share his certainty, but the angry wounds on his chest made it hard. “Can the Heart really heal you in three days?”
“Oh, I could fight now,” Josef said. “The Heart of War is exceptionally experienced at keeping its swordsmen standing. So long as I didn’t let go of the Heart, I’d be well enough. But I’m not going to have the Heart, so I need some extra time.”
“How will you beat Sted without the Heart?” Nico felt like a traitor even saying the words, but she couldn’t imagine how he could win without his sword.
“You’ll see when it happens,” Josef said, his voice growing soft and sleepy. “Trust me.”
Nico nodded and Josef closed his eyes again, sinking
almost instantly into a deep sleep. A minute later, Nico heard Sparrow leaving and what sounded like Tesset pulling up his own stool behind hers, but she didn’t turn to see for certain. She just sat there, watching Josef, standing guard beside his bed as the sun began to peek over the mountains.
E
li woke with a start. He was lying on his side, curled in a ball on a cold stone floor with his face pressed against a stone wall. He lifted his head away from the wall and gave his limbs an experimental wiggle. Tied, of course, ankles, legs, arms, and hands. He sighed and flopped his head back down on the stone. This captured thing was becoming depressingly frequent. Still, he wasn’t wet anymore, which meant he wasn’t with Miranda, and that greatly improved his chances of escape. Spiritualist spirits were so stingy. Of course, if he wasn’t with Miranda, where was he?
Slowly, painfully, Eli wiggled against his bindings, turning by fractions until he was on his back. Unfortunately, this only made him more confused. He was in a cave, a high one from the little scrap of sky he could see through the distant opening. A thin, cold breeze blew across him, carrying the smell of snow. He sniffed again, searching for woodsmoke or pine, but he caught nothing
but wet stone and frozen water. Wherever he was, he was far away from Izo’s camp, far away from anywhere, and that, much more than the ropes, posed a problem.
Eli started wiggling again, turning until his back was to the wall. First rule of thievery, always know what’s around you. The cave was quite small, barely six feet across and twice as deep, with a ceiling low enough to make a child claustrophobic. Still, despite the cave’s tiny dimensions, it took three look-overs for Eli to realize he wasn’t alone.
Sted’s enormous shape took up the entire back of the cave, his dull clothes blending perfectly into the dark stone. He was hunched over with his eyes closed, his right arm resting on his knees and his head touching the cave’s ceiling even sitting down. His other arm he held cradled against his chest, the black claws twitching. Even in the dark, what little Eli could see of the claw was enough to make him ill. It was simply too alien, too inhuman, the way the black, hard shell met Sted’s flesh in that sickening melding at the shoulder …
Eli shuddered and looked away before he really was sick. But as he lay there waiting for his stomach to calm down, he realized something else. With the exception of the place where his hideous arm connected to his body, Sted had been uninjured. Frowning, Eli snuck another glance, just to be sure. It was true. Sted’s clothes were blackened in places, ripped in others, but his flesh was whole and uninjured.
Eli bit his lip. Sted was a demonseed, that much was obvious, but even Nico didn’t heal instantly. This left two possibilities: Either he’d been out longer than he thought, or Miranda had gone down very quickly. Neither was a possibility he liked to consider.
Sted’s eyes were closed, but Eli was sure he wasn’t
asleep. Never one to lie in silence, Eli took the opportunity to speak first.
“Congratulations!” he said, lifting his head to grin at Sted. “You’ve caught—”
“Shut up.” Sted’s voice was flat and annoyed. He opened his eyes a fraction, revealing the eerie, unnatural glow beneath the heavy lids. “Prisoners who talk too much end up dead.”
“That would be some very expensive silence,” Eli tsked. “I’m worth much more alive.”
“You think I care about money?”
Eli considered. “No. No, I don’t think you do.”
Sted nodded and lapsed back into silence. After about three minutes, Eli couldn’t bear it any longer.
“At the risk of the aforementioned premature death,” Eli said in his most charming voice, “would you mind if I ask why you took me from the Spiritualist? Doesn’t seem your style, quite frankly.”
Sted said nothing. As the minutes stretched on, Eli resigned himself to curiosity. But then, suddenly, Sted answered.
“I took you to force Izo’s hand,” he said. “That idiot was going to give Josef Liechten to the Council, but now that I have you, all that’s changed. Izo will have no choice but to give me my fight.”
“Hold on,” Eli said, wiggling along the stone floor until he could look at Sted straight on. “You stole me, Eli Monpress, greatest thief in the world, a ninety-eight-thousand gold-standard bounty, just so you could fight Josef?” If his hands hadn’t been tied, he would have thrown them up in the air. “
Powers
, man, he’d fight you for free. Just take me back. I’m sure he’ll oblige.”
“I will,” Sted said. “In three days.”
Eli frowned. “What happens in three days?”
“I’m letting him heal,” Sted said simply. “My victory over the Heart of War and its wielder is not something I want polluted by a handicap. I will fight Leichten when he’s at full strength or not at all. You’re here to ensure I am not rushed or dictated by the petty ego of that bandit thug. Once I’ve defeated Josef, I’ll set you free.”
“Set me free?” Eli said. “Just like that?”
“Or kill you,” Sted said, tilting his head. “Depends on how generous I’m feeling and how much trouble you make for me. Whatever happens, you won’t be going back to Izo. That bastard deserves nothing, trading away what he’d already promised.”
“Well,” Eli said, “he
is
a bandit.”
Sted gave him a murderous look, and Eli snapped his jaw shut.
When he was sure the thief would stay silent, Sted continued. “In three days, we head back down the mountain. Until then, you’re going to sit there and not talk. And don’t even think about escaping. I don’t sleep much these days, and your dead carcass will still buy me my fight. Am I being clear?”
“Decidedly,” Eli said. “But can I ask you one last question?”
Sted frowned. “You can ask.”
“You used to be League, or that’s what Josef told me after your fight,” Eli said. “So why did you kill Nivel? When Pele said you took Nivel’s seed, I assumed it was some internal League struggle. But now it’s clear that you took Nivel’s seed for yourself, even though Josef said you were spirit deaf. So, why? How did it happen? Why did you switch?”
“To fight Josef Liechten,” Sted said simply. “I made a deal. A bad one on both sides, as it turned out, but I won’t give up until Josef Liechten is lying dead at my feet. He’s the only man who ever truly bested me, and if I’m going to die, I’ll die undefeated.”
Eli’s eyebrows shot up. “But—”
He swallowed his words at Sted’s glare. Clearly, that was all the answer he’d be getting. Turning away from Sted’s uncomfortable, glowing gaze, Eli rolled back toward the wall. He wiggled a bit, trying to find the most comfortable angle, but it was hopeless. Finally, he gave up and flopped on his back, staring up at the low stone ceiling.
It was going to be a very long three days.
Gin crashed through the forest, panting as he jumped over fallen logs and scrambled up slopes slick with fallen leaves. Miranda hunched low on his back, doing her best to avoid looking at the lightening sky or thinking about the fact that they’d already passed that rock formation twice before. But even as she tried to keep hope alive, the ghosthound padded to a stop at the edge of a creek.
“It’s no good,” he panted. “They’re gone. Sted was too fast. I don’t even know if we’re in the right part of the mountains anymore.”
“Just a little farther,” Miranda said, clenching her hands in his fur. “We just need a hint of his scent.”
“He’s gone.” Gin snapped the words, then shook his head and lowered his tongue to the swift water, drinking deeply. “I lost him hours ago,” he said when he was finished. “We need a different plan.”
“Like what?” Miranda said, gritting her teeth. “Go back to the bandits? Wait?”
“We’re not going to find him by wandering around,” Gin snarled.
His tone stopped her cold, and Miranda leaned back. He’d been running all night; of course he was tired. They were both tired, but the idea of going back to that camp empty-handed, of letting Eli slip through her hands
again
…
She leaned forward, resting her forehead against Gin’s neck. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t lose again, not like this. But what else was there to do? Saying he couldn’t find Eli wasn’t something Gin would admit unless he was truly out of options. The forest was huge, and they didn’t even know if Sted had continued north or changed direction entirely. No, finding him in the woods would require more luck than she had. She needed to reconsider her options.
Miranda took a deep breath and forced herself to think clearly. There were only two reasons Sted would have taken Eli: the bounty or as a bargaining chip against Izo. That meant he would eventually be headed either toward Zarin or back to Izo’s camp. She discarded the bounty idea immediately. If Sted was going to Zarin, then he was already so far ahead of her there was little point in giving chase, and Eli would end up in custody whether she caught him or not. Also, whatever Sted was, he certainly didn’t seem like the type to walk into Lord Whitefall’s office and ask for a voucher. And there was that display last night. No, Sted was after Izo. She was sure of it, and that meant he’d be heading back to the camp.
Miranda grimaced. As much as the idea of going back to Sparrow empty-handed grated, she had to admit it was the best choice. Also, Josef and Nico were still at the
camp. If Eli escaped from Sted, that’s where he’d go, and if Sted wanted something from Izo, that’s where he’d take the thief.
“All right, mutt,” she muttered into Gin’s fur. “Take us back to Izo’s.”
But the ghosthound didn’t answer. He was standing still as a statue below her, staring down the stream bank.
Miranda looked around. “What?”
“We’re being watched,” Gin growled low in his throat, ears going flat against his head.
Miranda pressed herself against his back, mentally nudging her rings awake. She winced when she was forced to skip over Kirik’s smoldering ember, but she couldn’t think about that now. “Is it Sted?” she whispered, slightly hopeful.
“No.” Gin was growling full tilt now. “It’s a wizard.”