by Rachel Aaron
She put the bottle to her lips and gagged almost instantly.
“It burns. ” She coughed, nearly throwing the bottle back at him.
“That it does,” Eli said sagely, taking a sip himself before recorking the bottle. “But a little fire can be good at knocking people out of their self-pity. ”
She flinched and cursed herself for a fool. Of course Eli would know.
“I admit Josef’s been an idiot about handling all this,” Eli said, his smile fading. “But you can’t hide up here forever, you know. ”
“I know,” Nico said slowly.
Eli scowled. “Not that he doesn’t deserve the cold shoulder after what he pulled. Honestly, married for months and didn’t even—”
“No,” Nico said, shaking her head. “It’s not our business what he does with his private life. It wasn’t like it was a problem until now. ”
“And now it’s a very big problem,” Eli said. “One that’s going to get even worse if my instincts are right, and they usually are. ” He glanced at her. “I’m going to need you with me, Nico. Josef’s in way over his head. He needs us, both of us. So, are we a team? Just like always?”
Nico sighed. “Yes,” she said. And it felt good. It was time to stop sulking. But… “I reserve the right to get out if I need to, though. ” Just in case she couldn’t take looking at his perfect, beautiful, demon-free princess.
“Fair enough,” Eli said, grabbing her hand and shaking it before she could snatch it back. “Now that that’s settled, there’s something else I was meaning to ask you. ”
Nico froze. She’d been with Eli long enough to know that overly casual tone meant trouble, but he was just leaning back on the roof, completely relaxed. However, the moment their eyes met, the strange glow flashed again, brighter than before. Nico jerked back, covering her eyes. It did no good. The light shone through.
“Thought so. ”
Nico dropped her arms to find Eli was sitting up, looking at her like a cat who’d just cornered a mouse. “You can see, can’t you?”
“See what?” Nico said, cringing.
“Spirits,” Eli said. “You can see them, like Slorn. ”
Nico stared at him, dumbstruck. Of course. That’s what they were.
“This is amazing!” Eli said, scooting so close he was practically sitting in her lap. “How long?”
Nico leaned away. “Since the valley,” she said softly. “How did you know?”
Eli grinned. “I first suspected it on the boat. You were staring at the scenery a little too much, and that got me wondering. After all,” he said, dropping his voice, “demons can see like spirits, and you’re as close to demon as humans get. It makes sense that you should pick up a bit of sight along with your other gifts. ”
“They’re not gifts,” Nico said sharply.
Eli waved his hand dismissively. “But you can see, right?”
“I think so,” Nico said. “I mean, it didn’t exactly come with instructions. And I’ve never seen spirits, so it’s not like I have something to compare it to. ” She left out the part where she’d thought it was another trick of the demon’s. No reason to give Eli any more reasons to think she was unstable. But if she’d had any fears of Eli’s rejecting her over this new development, they died right then. The thief was almost trembling with delight.
“Tell me about it!” he cried. “Slorn never tells me anything. He’s so stingy. I think it’s the bear in him. But you’ll tell me, right?”
Nico frowned, confused. “Tell you what?”
“Everything!” Eli said. “Look, I’ve been wondering my whole life: What do spirits see that we don’t? What does the world look like to them? What’s hidden from us? I have so many questions, and you can see my answers. ”
Nico looked up at the long, weaving, transparent shapes that coursed across the night sky. Winds, she now realized. She was seeing the winds. “They’re kind of hard to describe. ”
Eli rolled his eyes enormously. “Try me. ”
Nico bit her lip. At least he didn’t think she was crazy. Honestly, the fact that the things she’d been seeing were spirits made her feel enormously better. Spirits she could deal with.
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“Well,” she said, pointing up. “There are hundreds of winds above us. Earlier, they were blowing in from the sea. In the daylight they looked like long, clear snakes, only without heads or tails. Just long, um, tubes. ”
“Tubes?” Eli said, arching an eyebrow.
“Shut up,” she muttered. “I’m trying. So earlier they were all blowing in from the sea, but now they’re turning around. ”
“Ah, the night wind from the land,” Eli nodded. “Do they look different?”
“Yes,” Nico said, squinting. “They’re clearer. During the day they’re kind of opaque, like frosted glass. But at night they’re clear, and it’s easier to see the stuff on the dome of the sky. ”
The catch in Eli’s breath made her jump, and she turned to find him staring at her, pale as death. “Dome of the sky?”
Nico nodded. “It’s hard to see because of the winds, but sometimes I can see movement in the sky. It looks almost like the dome of the sky is a cloth, and something’s pressing on the other side. It’s very faint most of the time, but if I look for it, I can always find it somewhere. Sometimes I see it on several parts of the sky at once. ” She looked up again. “They’re always there somewhere. I can probably find you one if—”
A sharp pressure on her wrist cut her off, and she looked down to see Eli’s hand gripping her arm. The thief was still smiling, his face still calm, but the look in his eyes was the closest to true fear she’d ever seen on him.
“Nico,” he said, his voice quiet. “You can’t look at the sky. ”
“Why not?” Nico said, tugging her hand away.
“It’s the one of the rules all spirits must obey,” he whispered. “The first rule the Shepherdess spoke. ”
“Rule?” Nico said. She didn’t understand what he was talking about.
Eli nodded. “There are a lot of rules, actually. Humans don’t know them because we’re blind and we don’t need to. But if you’re going to keep looking, Nico, you have to stay away from the sky. If you keep staring at it, bad things will happen. ”
“What do you mean ‘bad things’?” Nico said. “How do you know all this?”
Eli leaned back. “A long time ago I made a childish decision that led to a very strange period in my life,” he said slowly. “I learned a lot of things that people aren’t supposed to know. ”
“Are you talking about the other Monpress?” Nico said.
Eli smirked. “No, not that. Giuseppe might be an old fox, but this isn’t exactly his area. This happened before my apprenticeship, and it has nothing to do with thievery. ” The smile fell off his face, and Eli suddenly grew very serious. “I don’t actually know what you are now, Nico. You’re a demonseed who beat the demon. I’ve never even heard of something like that, and so I don’t know if the rules even apply to you. But, just in case, now that you can see, you should at least know the rules before something comes down on you hard for breaking them. Make sense?”
Nico nodded.
“Good,” Eli said, raising one finger. “Rule one: Don’t look at the sky. Even the winds don’t look at the sky. ”
Nico scowled. “But why? What’s wrong with—”
Eli put his hand over her mouth. Nico almost bit it, but she stopped and contented herself with glaring at him until he took it away.
“Rule two,” he said. “Never ask about the sky. Ever. Ever, ever. Now, there are other rules, like don’t tell humans about stars and obey Great Spirits and so forth, but those are the two really important ones. The ones you really can’t break. ”
“Why not?” Nico whispered. “And what are stars?”
“Can’t tell you,” Eli said. “That’s a rule. Weren’t you listening?
”
Nico crossed her arms with a scowl. “Who made these rules, anyway?”
The laughter vanished from Eli’s eyes, and he looked back and forth, even though the roof was empty as ever. “The Shepherdess,” he whispered at last, his voice so low she could barely hear him. “She makes the only rules that matter in this world. She’s the power around here, and all spirits want to please her, which means any spirit who catches you looking at the sky or talking about it will try to stop you whether they know what you are or not, and if they peek under your coat, the jig is up. They could report you to the League, or worse, the Shepherdess herself. ” He took a deep breath. “Anyway, just don’t do it. There’s a rule against looking at the sky for a reason. ”
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Nico tilted her head, still not fully convinced. “And do you know that reason?”
“I have a theory,” Eli said. “But I’m going to leave it at that. Let’s just say that’s a mess even I won’t touch. Now”—he clapped his hands together, making her jump—“let’s move on to the good stuff. I have so many questions. ”
Nico stared at him, still trying to catch up with the subject change after all the puzzles he’d dumped on her, but Eli was already on his feet, reaching for her hands to pull her up as well.
“Come on, come on,” he said. “Night is burning, and we have so much to look at. ”
She shook her head and let him pull her to her feet. He led her along the stone gutters all the way to his window. Eli swung in first. He was calling for the servants before he landed, demanding food and a whole list of other things that made no sense at all. Nico shook her head and jumped after him, closing the window firmly behind her against the evening chill.
High overhead, ignored and unseen, the outlines of the enormous claws scraped harder than ever on the black dome of the sky.
CHAPTER
10
Heinricht Slorn sat cross-legged on the floor of his cell, staring at the mountain. Looking with that sight that his human mind could still barely comprehend, even after so many years, he could see the pulsing core of the mountain’s strength beneath the cell walls. The power of the spirit flowed like a glacier from its peak to its roots buried in the very foundation of the world. The Shaper Mountain surrounded him, cutting him off from the outside, and yet the more he looked, the closer he came to understanding the world he had seen in the mountain’s memory.
But as he studied the spirit, a tiny sound drew his eyes away from the mountain to the much humbler shape of the vent above his door. Strong as it was, the Shaper Mountain had no dominion over the winds. This deep in the mountain, the Teacher had been forced to create ventilation shafts so his human followers would not suffocate. The vent in Slorn’s chamber was far too small for a man of Slorn’s size, but not all men were Slorn’s size. His ears flicked as the tiny noise sounded again, the light, small sound of leather on stone. Slorn turned his head, bear eyes slowly moving back and forth across his tiny cell, but he saw nothing. In fact, he saw less than nothing, a blank emptiness that was itself telling. He smiled and focused his large brown eyes to see not as spirits saw, but the mundane shape of the physical world, and as he did, the man slowly appeared.
“Hello, Heinricht,” Sparrow said, flashing a superior smile as he straightened up from where he’d landed below the air vent. “Been a while. ”
“Not long enough,” Slorn said.
Sparrow shrugged and leaned against the door, his shape flickering. Slorn blinked in annoyance, struggling to keep his eyes focused only on the physical world, the only place where Sara’s little weapon was visible.
Sparrow’s smile widened at his frustration. “Aren’t you going to ask what I want?”
“Why should I ask such an obvious question?” Slorn said. “You’re here to offer me freedom in exchange for joining Sara’s menagerie, correct?”
Sparrow shrugged. “Good guess. ”
“It was no guess,” Slorn said. “You don’t have to know Sara long to know she would never let a situation like this slip by without playing her hand. ”
“Way I see it, Sara has all the cards now,” Sparrow said, looking around at the small cell. “You’ve gotten yourself into quite the mess, haven’t you? Whatever you came to tell your former masters, they must not have liked it since you’re in a cell rather than at the head of a workshop where you belong. Sara can change that. ”
“I’m sure she could,” Slorn said. “But Sara’s price is always too high. ”
“All she asks is that you share your knowledge,” Sparrow said. “Is that so much?”
Slorn’s calm expression turned into a snarl. “I’ve seen how she treats her people, Sparrow. I’m already a bear. I have no interest in becoming a dog. Besides”—Slorn looked down at the floor, toward the mountain’s roots—“I have unfinished business here. ”
“What business can you finish here?” Sparrow said, laughing. “The Shapers are so bound in by law they’ve locked away their greatest asset for a minor transgression from a decade ago. Such people don’t deserve access to talent like yours. ” He pushed off the wall, walking across the tiny cell until he was barely a foot from Slorn’s muzzle. “Sara’s different,” he whispered. “She doesn’t care about pasts or traditions, only results. Come with me to Zarin and nothing will ever stand in your way again. ”
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Slorn looked him in the eyes. “And that is exactly why I’m not coming with you. I cannot work with someone who values only the ends and never the means. ”
Sparrow’s face fell. “You’re not exactly in a position to judge, bear man,” he said in a low, sharp voice. “You were the one who led that poor, ignorant Spiritualist girl straight into the Shaper Mountain, knowing full well she’d never be allowed to leave. Tell me, Slorn, is that something a moral man would do?”
“No,” Slorn said. “But I had no choice. I knew when I decided to return to the Shapers that I would never leave this mountain again. That’s why I needed another wizard, someone I could trust, who could hear my argument and the mountain’s reply and take that knowledge where I no longer could. ”
“And where was she supposed to take it?” Sparrow said. “Into her cell? Because that’s where she is, you know. Alone, suffering, without even her puppy for comfort, and it’s all because of you. ”
“I am fully aware of my fault in this,” Slorn said. “But Miranda has a much bigger role in things to come than she knows. A role I forced her into by bringing her here, and a role I will force her to continue by hiring you to free her on my behalf. ”
Sparrow snorted. “I don’t think you can afford me. ”
“Ah, but I won’t be paying you,” Slorn said, taking something from his jacket pocket. It was a fat, leather-bound notebook tied with a loop of string.
“What’s that?” Sparrow said, leaning in for a better look. “Your diary?”
“My research notes,” Slorn said, holding the book like a precious relic. “This book contains the complete record of Nivel’s and my work for the last ten years. I may not be able to afford your services, but this book should be plenty to buy the services of the woman who owns you. Every answer to every question Sara has asked me about demons over the last decade is in his book. I’m giving it to her in exchange for Miranda’s freedom, plus freedom for all her spirits. ”
A sly smile spread over Sparrow’s face. “All her spirits?” he said, scratching his chin. “A clever touch, bear man. ” He eyed the book, and Slorn could almost see the scales weighing the danger of freeing Miranda versus the danger of angering Sara. Sara must have won out in the end, for a moment later, Sparrow’s hand swooped in and snatched the book from Slorn’s fingers.
“The Council accepts your offer,” he said, hefting the book in his hands. “But I must say, you’ve become a very trusting bear in your old age, Heinricht. How do you know I won’t just take this and leave poor little Miranda to the
mess you made for her? I mean, it’s not like you can go for a stroll to see if I kept my word. ”
Slorn smiled. “It was because I knew you were following us that I risked bringing Miranda to the Shaper Mountain in the first place. Sara’s too good a judge of opportunity to abandon a spirit like Mellinor. My guess is that you have orders to take us both back to Zarin. However, breaking someone out of the Shaper Mountain is no easy feat, and since I’m not going, you might be tempted to cut your losses and just leave. With this in mind, think of that book as collateral. You’ll find a letter to Sara on the inside cover explaining that Miranda is supposed to be with you. ”
Sparrow’s smile faltered, and he flipped the book open, glaring at the note scrawled across the inside cover, impossible to rip out without ruining the first half of the notes.
“You can be a very conniving bear, Heinricht,” he said, snapping the book shut with a deep sigh. “You know, of course, that this little payment is between you and Sara and won’t spare the Spiritualist the enormous debt she’ll owe the Council for her escape. ”
Slorn shrugged. “Miranda is a competent woman. I trust her to handle her own obligations. ”
“I’ll be sure to tell her you said so,” Sparrow said, tucking the notebook into his pocket as he walked back to the wall. “Lovely chatting with you, Heinricht. ”
“You take care of Miranda, Sparrow,” Slorn said, his voice heavy with warning. “She knows things now that could save us all. ”
“What, haven’t you heard?” Sparrow said, glancing over his shoulder. “The Empress is on the move. Nothing can save us now. ” He pressed himself against the wall and jumped, catching the edge of the vent with one hand. “Good-bye, old bear,” he said, pulling himself expertly into the opening. “Maybe we’ll meet again someday. ”
“Likely not,” Slorn said.
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Sparrow laughed and folded his thin body, slipping out of the cell like smoke. Slorn watched the place where he had been for several minutes, blinking his eyes every time his focus drifted from the physical world toward the spirit. Someday, he told himself, someday he would ask Sara where she’d found Sparrow and how his spirit invisibility actually worked. It was a lie, of course. In all likelihood he would never leave this cell again. Still…
