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.
CHAPTER
16
Eli 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
