The Legend Of Eli Monpress (98 page)

She dropped her spoon with a frustrated huff. “If this is about tank seven,” she said, spinning around in her chair, “I already know. There’s no reason … ”

Her words trailed to a stop as she got a look at the man who’d barged into her room. He stood in the doorway, tall and impossibly imposing in his severe red robes. His black hair was touched with gray at the temples while his clenched fingers, wrists, and neck were laden with enough gems to make a king jealous. He looked angry enough to spit nails, and his blue eyes were flashing murder, but Sara couldn’t help smiling as she leaned back to take him in.

“Hello, Etmon,” she said, blowing a thin line of blue pipe smoke into the air between them. “It’s been too long.”

If possible, his fists clenched tighter still. “Not long enough.”

Sara’s smile widened. The sight of him was nostalgic enough, but the sound of Etmon Banage’s furious voice made her feel twenty years younger. “This seems to be
my week for unexpected visitors,” she said. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“You never change, do you?” Banage said. “Still asking questions you already know the answers to just to make me say it. I’m here to tell you that my apprentice will not be accompanying your goons on whatever scheme you’re plotting. I lent her to the Council at the request of Lord Whitefall to assist in the capture of Eli Monpress, not so that you could use her as spiritual muscle whenever you had a problem your undertrained, impotent Council wizards couldn’t handle.”

Sara bit down on her pipe. “Don’t get angry, Etmon. It’s bad enough seeing you in those ridiculous red bedsheets your little social club requires without your face changing to match. And for your information,” she added quickly, cutting off Banage’s furious retort, “I am doing nothing improper. Your little Miranda is going to help my people set a trap for the thief, among other things.”

“It’s the ‘other things’ that concern me,” Banage said through gritted teeth. “I knew I was taking a risk letting Miranda get anywhere near the Council, but Whitefall assured me you would keep your claws out of her affairs. Miranda is a strong wizard and a fine Spiritualist who’s been through a great deal in the last year. I won’t have you abusing her sense of duty to trick her into doing your dirty work.”

“As if I could,” Sara snapped, her anger rising to meet his. “She’s as moral and dutiful and closed-minded as any of your flock. You don’t have to worry about her.”

“Don’t tell me what to do with my own people!” Banage roared. “You’re sending her to the edge of the Council to make some kind of deal with Izo the Bandit
King. Have you finally lost what little grip on reality you ever possessed?”

“You’re one to talk about reality,” Sara said. “Seeing as you live in some black-and-white fantasy where we catch thieves without dealing with the underworld.”

Banage sneered, and Sara blew out a long huff of bitter smoke. “Anyway,” she said, “the deal is done. The girl already agreed to go, and as a servant of the Council, she’s legally obligated to see the job through. So if that was the only reason you had for honoring me with your presence this evening, I’m afraid you’re out of luck, old man. Run on home to your tower and let me get back to my work. You know, the stuff that’s actually important.”

“Oh, yes,” Banage scoffed. “I forgot. Your work is more important than anything else.” He thrust a jeweled finger at her. “I’m taking this to Merchant Prince Whitefall.”

“Go ahead,” Sara said. “He’ll just side with me. Council matters are my playground, Etmon. Go back to your tower and your fawning, self-righteous Spiritualists. Tell you what, when we catch Eli, I’ll bring him by and you can preach him to death.”

Banage whirled around, his fists clenching in rage, and Sara heaved a frustrated sigh.

“Why did you even come?” she muttered. “You knew it would be like this.”

Banage didn’t look at her. “Because,” he said quietly. “Fool that I am, I still believe that, someday, you will remember your oaths.”

“What, to the Spirit Court?” Sara’s eyes narrowed. “Or to you?”

Banage didn’t answer. He walked out of her office without another word, slamming the door behind him
with a crash that made Sara wince. She glared at the closed door for a long time, furiously puffing on her pipe until the bowl was nothing but dead ash. Shaking her head at the wasted time, she emptied her pipe into the dregs of her cold soup and got back to work.

N
ico gasped at the thin, cold air and pulled her coat tighter across her shoulders. She walked with her face down, her boots crunching over the crust of ice on the rocky slope. They were far north, beyond the Council Borders, farther even than Slorn’s Awakened Wood, on the cold, high slopes of the Sleeping Mountains. An impressive distance, considering it had been only three weeks since Eli had driven them out of Home before dawn. That much wasn’t unusual. Eli was always in a rush when he had a job in mind, but this time keeping up had been much harder.

It doesn’t have to be.

Nico grimaced. The farther north they went, the stronger the voice became.

Why do you do this to yourself?
The voice echoed loud and clear through her head, as though the speaker were standing behind her eyeballs.
All I ask is honesty, Nico. Embrace what you are and you can have everything back, your strength, your senses, everything.

Nico stomped her aching legs down and focused on the sound of frozen pine needles as they crunched under her boots. “How much farther?”

“Not far,” Eli said. He was well ahead of her, walking lightly between the scrubby evergreens like he didn’t know what tiredness was.

“So you keep saying,” Josef grumbled, keeping pace with Nico. “Is this another of your moving houses?”

“No,” Eli said. “Or I don’t think so. I’ve never actually been here before.”

Josef stopped and stared at him. “Then how do you know where we’re going?”

“I don’t,” Eli said cheerfully. “Not many do, past this point. It’s not exactly on a map.”

Josef sneered up at the mountains surrounding them. “Fantastic. Three weeks on a death march just to get lost in the mountains.”

“I’m not lost,” Eli said sharply, turning around to face them. “We are exactly where we should be. And if the stories I’ve heard are correct, we shouldn’t be able to go much farther before our hosts find us.”

Josef opened his mouth to ask another question, but stopped midbreath. He dropped to a crouch, his hand flying to the hilt of the massive sword on his back. A second later, Nico heard it too, the faint crunch of something moving in the woods. Something large. She dropped to a crouch beside Josef, ignoring the protests of her aching legs. Looking around, she could see nothing but trees and stones and empty country, the same as she had seen for the past two days. But she knew something was there, a darker shadow beneath the shaggy pines, watching them. Beside her, she heard Josef draw the Heart. Off to her left, something growled.

“Ah,” Eli said brightly. “That would be them now.” 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.