body to serve as a prison because I knew my brother would watch in my stead. But now, history repeats itself. My brother is the only mountain strong enough to hold the creature Nico has become. If you call the Shepherdess down now, she will have no choice but to use the only tool she has left, and the last of the great mountains will be gone.”
“That’s a fine sentiment,” Alric said through gritted teeth. “But we have no choice. I cannot sit here and watch that thing eat the world.”
“But we do have a choice,” the Heart said. “The thief saw it himself. Inside that monster is one of our own.”
“The girl is gone,” Alric said. “Don’t kid yourself. Human spirits are the first consumed on awakening.”
“Then why did it save Josef?” Eli asked.
Alric’s eyes narrowed. “How should I know?”
“Nico is still alive,” the Heart said. “She is a survivor. I had my doubts as well at first. Since the morning Josef took her naked from the crater, I have come close to killing her myself on several occasions. Every time, I thought the demon had won, but every time she fought back. I think that this time will be no different. That thing may not look like Nico, but it is still her body. So long as there is some shred of her soul left, so long as she still has will, she is still a wizard. So long as she has will, she has the weight of a mountain, and there is still hope.”
Alric shook his head, but Eli stared past him, watching the demon with an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face.
“Alric,” he said quietly, “I’ll make you a deal.”
Alric sneered. “This isn’t the time for tricks.”
“No,” Eli said. “No tricks, just a clean proposition. We may not have always gotten along, but Nico is still my companion. I take only the best into my line of work, and she’s no exception. The sword is right. The demon never beat her before, and I’m willing to bet my life and my pride that it hasn’t beaten her now.” He held up his hand, fingers splayed wide. “Five minutes. If she doesn’t beat her seed in five minutes, then I’ll do anything you want. I’ll call Benehime down here to dance with you, if you like. Do we have a deal?”
Alric considered for a moment, and then released his death grip on Eli’s shirt. “You do realize that in five minutes there may not be anything left to save.” He looked at the demon, then at the Heart, and then at Eli. “All right,” he said, sheathing his sword. “Five minutes.”
Eli nodded and stepped over Josef’s splayed body. He ran to the edge of the ruined fissure, parts of which were still collapsing and, cupping his hands to his mouth, shouted as loud as he could.
“Nico!” he cried, layering just enough power into the words to make sure they would cut through everything else. “Listen! Me, Josef, the Heart of War, we’re betting it all on you! You’ve got five minutes to turn this around before Alric and the League get their way, but I think you can do it. I’m sorry about before. I was stupid. I admit it. Come back to us, Nico, and everything will be like it was, only better. Just you, me, Josef, and anything in the world we want to steal. All you have to do is kick that demon out and come home. Five minutes. We’ll be here waiting for you.”
His voice echoed through the hills, and the spirit panic dimmed to listen. On the other side of the fissure, the demon paused its eating. It stood there, listening for one long moment. Then, with an angry scream, it began to eat again.
Panting, Eli sat down on the crumbling stone, rubbing his hands over his dusty face and hoping on whatever luck he still had that he’d made the right choice.
CHAPTER
21
Nico raised her head. She could have sworn she’d heard someone calling her, but now, no matter how she strained her ears, all she heard was silence. She was alone, sitting on a cold floor of smooth black stone. It went on forever in all directions, an endless, endless darkness of the kind she’d seen only once before.
“Yes,” a deep, smooth voice whispered behind her. “When you were with me.”
Nico spun around, sliding back on the stone. A man was standing behind her where there had been no one a second before. He was tall and broad shouldered, dressed in a simple black shirt and dark trousers tucked into tall boots, just like Josef’s. He looked a lot like Josef too, and a little bit like Eli, but the cruel look in his golden eyes belonged to only one person.
“Master.” Her whisper was little more than a breath.
“At last you remember.” The man smiled.
Nico did remember. She remembered the slave pens. How she’d been taken from them. How the cult members had held her down, their dead white faces leering beneath their cowls. She remembered the hideous feeling of the seed, then barely larger than a grape pit, being shoved down her choking throat. But more than that, she remembered the unadulterated joy of the Master’s good opinion. The absolute pleasure that came from being a good child who pleased her father. The warmth, the understanding, the acceptance that no one outside could give her.
The Master opened his arms, and she ran to him, flinging herself against his chest with a sob. Joy and belonging like she’d never felt washed over her, but even as she savored the feelings, there was something wrong about them. Something alien, almost sticky in her mind. Slowly, painfully, she released her grip and stepped back.
“You’re making me feel this, aren’t you?” she whispered.
“Of course,” the Master said, stroking her hair. “You’re home now. It’s only right you should share in my happiness.” He ran his hand under her chin, tilting her head up until their eyes met. “You are mine again, every bit of you. My greatest weapon is back in my command, and she’ll never escape again. Is that not cause for joy?”
Nico ducked out of his grasp, or tried to, but her body would not move. The Master just smiled and kept petting her, stroking her hair like a huntsman petting his prize hound.
“Now, now,” he tsked. “You lost, Nico. You don’t get to play keep-away anymore. It’s over; take it gracefully. If this works out the way I expect, a new Dead Mountain will be born. I’ll be twice as powerful as I am now, and it’s all thanks to you. That’s why I’m being so generous, despite everything you’ve done. If you were any other seed, I would have crushed you and left you to die the moment you disobeyed me, but I didn’t. I stayed with you, despite your defiance. I never abandoned you.”
He slid his hand up to cup her cheek before stepping back.
“You should be grateful,” he said. “I have given you everything. Made you the ground for my greatest creation. Yet even now you stand there staring at me like you’re some kind of victim.” His smile grew impossibly cruel. “I have done nothing to you that you did not deserve. It is I who have suffered the most, suffered as you denied me over and over again, despite everything I’ve done for you. Have you nothing to say?”
“No, Master.” Nico lowered her head. “I am sorry, Master.”
The Master’s arms slid around her shoulders, pulling her against him as the sticky, alien joy flooded her mind. “There, there,” he said. “I forgive you. It’s over now. You’ve lost. You don’t have to think anymore. You don’t have to try. I’ll take care of everything. Just let it go. There’s a good girl.”
Nico let herself slump into his arms. She couldn’t even remember why she’d been fighting, only that she’d been trying so hard for so long. But the Master was here now, and he would take care of everything. All she had to do was be good, do as he said, and nothing would ever hurt again.
But as that thought circled round and round in her mind, a tiny, lingering doubt nagged at her. She felt like she was forgetting something terribly important.
“Wait,” she said. “Where’s Josef?”
“Gone,” the Master said. “Abandoned you, along with that no-account thief. Everyone has abandoned you, except me. They see you as a monster. They’re probably trying to kill you right now.”
“No!” Nico said, looking up at him. “Josef would never abandon me.”
The Master slapped her hard across the face. Nico stumbled and fell without a cry, landing hard on the cold
