Nico watched wide-eyed as Eli trotted back down the hill and stopped with a grand bow, flourishing his hands dramatically. “Greetings, ancient guardians of the heights! I am Eli Monpress, and—”
“We know who you are,” a voice rumbled. “Get out. This is no place for humans.”
Nico swallowed as several more growls went up in agreement. She felt Josef shift, his muscles clenching. He might not be able to hear the voice, but the obvious threat in the rumbling sound from the shadows required no interpretation.
“Don’t be so hasty,” Eli said, putting up his hands. “I’m here on behalf of a mutual acquaintance, Heinricht Slorn.” A great round of growls went up at this, and Nico winced at the sound of claws scraping on frozen ground. Eli didn’t even blink. “I ask an audience with Gredit.”
For a moment, nothing happened, and then the trees around them began to rustle, and Nico pulled back as the source of the growls stepped into view. All around them, stepping out of trees and from behind stones, were enormous mountain bears. They moved in, yellow teeth bared and ready, shaking the snow off brown, furry shoulders that stood taller than Nico’s head. The bears stopped at the edge of the trees, growling and pawing the ground. Only one bear came closer, striding across the frozen stones until he was a few feet from Eli. When he was close enough to reach out and bat Eli across the face with his massive paw, the bear stopped and, far more gracefully than Nico could have imagined, stood up on his hind legs. Nico swallowed. The bear was ten feet tall at least, and from the way he glared down his silver-streaked muzzle at the thief, she didn’t doubt for a moment that he could crush Eli like a ripe berry if he wanted, and they all, especially the bears, knew it.
“You have a lot of nerve coming up here and saying that name,” the bear growled, brown eyes darting between Eli and Josef. “Tell the deaf one to put up his weapon.”
“It won’t matter if I tell him,” Eli said. “Josef does what he wants. However”—he leaned forward conspiratorially—“maybe if you weren’t giving him such reason to use it, he might put it up on his own.”
The large bear glared at Eli and then jerked his head. All around the circle, the bears backed away. Josef, well used to one-sided conversations, got the point and slowly slid the Heart back into its sheath.
Eli smiled at the bears. “Now,” he said, “about that audience?”
The lead bear dropped back on all fours. “If you want to talk with Gredit, we’ll take you there, but don’t expect to like what you hear. He doesn’t care much for your kind.”
“So I’ve heard,” Eli said. “But one takes the chances one must. Lead on.”
The bear gave him a final poison look and turned around, trotting off into the trees. As the other bears did the same, Eli turned to Josef and Nico. “Stay close,” he whispered.
“Right,” Josef said, easing his daggers in and out of his sleeves. “Close to the pack of enormous bears.”
“Never a boring moment,” Eli said with a grin before turning and jogging after the bear. Shaking his head, Josef followed. Nico stayed close behind, holding her coat tighter than ever.
The bears followed no path. They trundled straight across the mountainside, hopping easily over rocks and fallen trees. Nico had the suspicion that they did this on purpose, to make it hard for their human followers, but they had another thing coming if they thought they could slow down people who traveled with Eli Monpress with a little hazardous countryside. Nico, Josef, and Eli kept the pace, following the bears along the mountain ridge until they reached a narrow valley ringed on all sides by old, dark firs.
The bears slowed, picking their way down to the narrow, swift stream at the valley’s base. The air here was different than the slopes. It clung in the throat, wet and thick with the wild smell of pine and fur. The damp cold went straight through Nico’s coat, making her movements slow and clumsy. Fortunately, the bears stopped when they reached the water and turned upstream.
“There,” the largest bear said, looking over his shoulder at Eli.
They didn’t have to ask what he meant. Down by the water they could see what had been hidden by trees from above. Ten feet up the slope, nestled back in the gray stone of the mountain face, was a cave, and all around the cave were bears. Even Eli pulled back when he saw them. The bears were all different sizes and colors. Some were enormous and black, while others were smaller and honey brown. They sat in clusters, watching the intruders with cold, dark eyes.
“I didn’t bring you here to stare,” their guide rumbled. “Go and be done, or leave now.”
Eli gave the bear a smile, but even Nico could tell it wasn’t one of his best. The bear just turned away with a huff. Thoroughly dismissed, Eli started up the hill, Josef and Nico close behind him. The bears at the cave mouth didn’t move. They just watched as the humans scrambled up the muddy slope toward the cavern’s entrance. It was a large opening, three times Josef’s height and wide enough for four carts to drive abreast with space to spare, but the musty smell that drifted out of the dark, a potent mix of wild animal and old blood, was enough to give even Eli pause.
The moment they stopped, all the bears began to growl. Eli jumped at the sound and gave himself a shake. Then, with a dazzling smile at the rumbling bears, he marched into the cave as though he were entering a banquet where he was the guest of honor. Nico and Josef followed more cautiously. Once they were inside, the gray light faded. The cave only seemed to get bigger the deeper they went, and in the shadows Nico could make out more bears watching them as they stumbled across the uneven floor in the dark.
Fifty feet from its entrance, the cave ended abruptly in a slope of broken rocks, and sitting on the rocks like a king on his throne was the largest bear Nico had ever seen. He towered in the dark, lounging with his back against the broken stone. Even lying back, the bear was nearly fifteen feet tall, and almost as broad. His enormous paws, each large enough to crush Nico’s head like a walnut, rested on his monstrous stomach, the black claws moving slowly back and forth through his black, coarse fur.
As her eyes adjusted to the dark, Nico realized that the bear’s fur was actually more gray than black. His pelt was crisscrossed with thin patches where scars interrupted the growth of his coat, and one of his black eyes was silver with cataracts. But any illusion of age and weakness was dispelled when he bared his massive jaw full of yellow teeth in an expression that could have been a grin had it been less terrifying.
Undaunted, Eli stopped at the foot of the great bear’s slope and dropped a deep, formal bow. “Greetings, Gredit, eldest of all bears,” he said solemnly. “I am Eli Monpress, and I come before you to beg a boon for one of your—”
“I know who you are.”
Nico winced at the bear’s voice. It was deep enough to shake the stone below her feet, and full of anger.
Eli glanced up from his bow, and the bear gave him a nasty sneer.
“So,” Gredit rumbled. “The white bitch’s favorite has come to ask a boon from me. This is quite the turn.”
“Not for myself,” Eli said quickly. “I would never dream of troubling you for my own benefit. I’m here on behalf of our dear, mutual friend, Heinricht Slorn.”
The bear’s eyes, black and cloudy silver, narrowed. “And what would Slorn want of a lapdog like you?”
“He hasn’t had the chance to tell me,” Eli said, straightening up. “He’s gone missing.”
The bear made a horrible sound, like a growling cough, and it took Nico a terrifying moment to realize he was laughing.
“Now it comes together,” the bear said, still chuckling. “You want me to tell you where he is.”
“You are the Great Spirit of the northern bears,” Eli said simply. “It is within your power.”
“And what would a human know of my power?” the bear said. “We bears have been here as long as the mountains themselves, as long as the winds in the sky. What would you know of that?”
“Nothing at all,” Eli said. “But I’m not here for history. I’m here to learn what I need to know to save a friend. A mutual friend, unless I am sadly mistaken.”
Gredit gave him a long look. “We honor Slorn. Of all your kind, he was the only one who used your unnatural power over spirits to help us. But”—the bear growled at Eli’s growing smile—“that gratitude does not extend to you, little favorite.” The bear leaned back on his throne of crumbled boulders. “If you want our help, you’ll first have to prove what you are.”
“But you already know me,” Eli said. “You interrupted me to make that much clear.”
“Oh, I know you,” the bear said. “I’m no blind fool like your lot. But I want to see the proof for myself.” Gredit bared his teeth. “Show me her mark, or get out.”
Eli took a deep, frustrated breath. “Surely there’s another—”
