The Spirit Eater (16 page)

“Sounds dangerous,” Josef said, staring at Nico. “Can you even go there?”

“No,” Nico said, her voice thick and halting. It had never been spoken, but she knew deep in her soul that if she ever set foot on that black slope, she would never leave it again. “But I can take you to the edge.”

“And we can take it from there,” Eli said, grinning. “I’ve always wanted to know what was on the demon’s mountain. If even a tenth of the stories are true, it’s bound to be a macabre wonder of the world. And let’s not forget the thrill of breaking into a place even the League won’t go.”

“That had better not be what this is about,” Josef growled.

“Of course not!” Eli looked hurt. “But you can’t fault me for seeing the many side benefits of Nico’s delightful plan, which solves our problem at no cost to ourselves.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Josef said. “I don’t know much about these things, but I don’t think the Dead Mountain is a place you just walk into.”

“Neither was the fortress of Gaol,” Eli said with a smile. “That’s the whole point of walking in.”

The swordsman gave him a dirty look. “Don’t turn this into one of your stunts. You’re still not off the hook.”

Eli’s face grew deathly serious. “I didn’t imagine I would be. Are you in on this, or are you going to be difficult?”

Josef put a hand on the Heart of War’s hilt. “That depends on her,” he said, and turned his stony glare to Nico. “If you want to do this, Nico, I’m behind you, but only if you really want to. Don’t let Eli make this about him.”

Eli harrumphed at that. Nico and Josef ignored him. “I want to help,” Nico said. “I owe Slorn a greater debt than any of us.”

Josef nodded. “Then lead on.”

Nico closed her eyes, opening her soul to the nagging pull in her bones she’d been ignoring all the way north. Her feet turned of their own accord, and when she opened her eyes again, she was facing north and west. Though she could not see it yet, and wouldn’t for a long time, she knew she was pointed directly at the Dead Mountain.

As she stepped forward, she tried to marshal the feeling that she was doing the right thing. That she was helping Eli and Josef instead of being a burden for once. But every step left an ashy taste on her tongue and a dull pain in her legs. Deep inside her mind, scraping the bottom of her thoughts, she could feel the voice smiling. That alone chilled her more than the cold wind, and no matter how tight she pulled her coat, she could not get warm again.

They climbed for three days, moving ever higher into the sharp, gray mountains. The trees vanished on the second day, replaced by thorny shrubs, and then nothing, just endless slopes of bare stone and snow. At night, great gusts blew in icy sheets across their meager campsite, leaving tracks of frost on the path that Josef had to break up with his boots before they could move on. Still, despite none of them being dressed for mountain weather, they made good time, mostly thanks to Karon, Eli’s lava spirit.

As soon as the cold became uncomfortable, Eli had opened his shirt and had a nice long chat with the burn on his chest. Karon was happy to help them stick it to the ice and wind spirits, and he cheerfully kept the air around Eli as warm and dry as a smokehouse.

“I only wish it didn’t reek of sulfur,” Josef said, pressing up the mountainside. “I’d almost rather deal with the cold.”

“Well, don’t let me stop you,” Eli huffed, though even he looked a little green. “Who am I to stand between a man and his frostbite?”

Nico would have chuckled at that, but even a smile felt out of place on the gray slopes. They were getting close. Though she kept her hood down and her eyes on the path, it did little good. She could see the mountain all the time now, even when she closed her eyes, which she did as little as possible. It only made her more aware that she was never alone. The voice sat like a lump in her mind, rarely speaking but ever present, a constant weight that could not be removed or ignored.

“Nico?”

She jumped at her name and looked to see Eli staring at her.

“You stopped. Are you alright?”

Nico swallowed. She didn’t remember stopping. “I’m fine,” she said softly.

Eli gave her a look of superb disbelief, and she hurried forward, scurrying up the mountain until she was at the edge of Karon’s warmth.

If you embraced what you were there would be no need for these charades, the voice tsked. If the thief and the swordsman are so important to you, why bother fighting this fight we both know you’re going to lose? What do you hope to gain? Admit it, everyone would be so much happier if you just accepted your fate.

Nico clenched her jaw and focused on pulling herself up the slope. Eli followed behind her, watching her back with a cautious, closed expression.

Josef reached the top of the slope first. He’d taken to pushing forward, plowing through the snow to make a path for the others before falling back to the circle of Karon’s heat to warm up again. This time he waited for them, standing impatiently at the peak while Nico and Eli trudged the last fifty icy feet. The top of the slope was not the top of the mountain, however. Instead, they came out in a short, narrow pass between two peaks. It was a forbidding place, a wide alley of stone paved with sharp, icy rocks and crusted snow, but it was sheltered from the wind and that was enough to make it feel almost homey.

“At last,” Eli said. “I thought we’d be climbing forever.”

“We may not be done yet,” Josef answered, picking his way down the pass. “Don’t get too cozy.”

Eli’s mouth twitched, but he said nothing. Though they were speaking mostly as usual, Nico was keenly aware that Josef and Eli still weren’t looking directly at each other. It made sense, of course. No matter how close the friendship, the things they’d said outside the bear’s cave couldn’t be forgotten as easily as that. Still, Nico couldn’t even look at them together without feeling a horrible pang of guilt. She had to find Slorn as soon as possible, she thought, hurrying down the pass after Josef. The sooner the pressure was lifted and the problem was resolved, the sooner they could all go back to how they were before.

She caught up to Josef quickly, not because she was moving so quickly but because the swordsman had stopped. He was standing at the other end of the sheltered pass, staring out at the white landscape beyond with a hard look on his face. She didn’t have to ask him what he saw; she could feel it waiting out there, beyond the snow.

“We’re here, aren’t we?” Josef said softly.

Nico could only nod, forcing her foot to take the last, terrified step to stand beside him and look out on their final destination.

The pass between the mountains let out on a steep, snow-covered slope that plunged down into a little valley. Snow blew in sheets across it, hiding everything else behind a blanket of pure white, but here and there the wall of snow thinned, allowing a fleeting glimpse of the mountain at the other end of the valley. It towered above the other peaks, twice as high as any of the lesser mountains that ringed it, its cold, black stone showing through the blowing snow like dark water under ice.

“There’s no snow on its slopes,” Josef said, squinting against the white storm.

“No,” Eli said, stepping up to join them and bringing the welcome sphere of warmth with him. “No snow, no water, just dry, dusty stone, and the cold, of course.” He glanced at Nico. “Or so I’ve heard.”

Nico looked away. She didn’t know how to answer that. All the way here she’d been probing her mind, trying to dig up memories about her time on the mountain. The closer they came, the more familiar things had felt, but a black haze hung over her mind, drawing a curtain between the morning Josef found her from everything before it. Nico frowned. Perhaps the demon ate her memories as well as her soul. Perhaps she really was starting to lose her mind.

You can’t blame everything on me, the voice purred. You locked those memories away yourself. Pity, you were so much stronger then. It sickens me when I think of what you threw away.

Nico firmly turned her attention toward the valley floor. She did not want to hear it.

“Alright,” Eli said, dropping his bag on the ice at his feet. “Since you can’t go to the mountain, Nico, Josef and I will sneak in ourselves and find that map you mentioned. We’ll have to take Karon with us. Will you be alright without heat?”

Nico considered. “I should be. I’m sheltered here, and I’ve got my coat. I’ll be good until nightfall.”

“Plenty of time,” Eli said, glancing at Josef. “Let’s go.”

Josef nodded, and the pair of them started down the steep slope toward the black mountain. Eli skidded a little on icy snow and half ran, half slid down the first slope. Josef, however, took one step and stopped cold.

Nico thought he was testing the ground, but the seconds ticked by and still he didn’t move. Eli recovered his footing and, realizing he was alone, glanced up at his swordsman.

“Are you alright?” he called.

Josef didn’t answer. He had a look on his face Nico had never seen on him before. On anyone else, she would have called it bewilderment. For a long minute he just stood there, the wind blowing snow into his short blond hair. Then, very slowly, as though he were pushing against enormous pressure, Josef lifted his arm, raised his hand to his shoulder, and, with a flip of the buckle, undid the strap that held the Heart of War to his back.

The sword fell to the ground with a crash that echoed off the mountain walls, sending the snow sliding down the slopes. The second he was free, Josef staggered forward, panting and red-faced like he’d just run a mile in full armor.

Eli looked from sword to swordsman. “What just happened?”

“I don’t know,” Josef said, struggling to stand upright. He turned to face his fallen sword, which was lying on the ice just inside the ravine. Scowling, he leaned forward and grabbed the handle with both hands, pulling as hard as he could.

The sword did not move.

Josef braced his legs and pulled again, but the sword stuck to the icy stone as though it had grown there, and nothing Josef did could move it. After the third pull, he fell backward into the snow. Josef sat up again with a flurry of thrown snow, gasping and glaring at his sword. But the Heart just sat there, black and silent as ever.

Eli climbed back up the slope and leaned over the sword until his nose was almost level with the leather-wrapped hilt, staring intently. When he had examined it from every angle, he stood up with a shrug. “I guess it doesn’t want to go to the Dead Mountain either.”

“That’s too bad,” Josef said, breathing hard. “Because I’m not going in there without it, so it’ll just have to come along.”

He grabbed the hilt to pull again, but this time he stopped, his face going ghostly pale.

“What?” Eli said.

Josef shook his head, like he was trying to clear it. “It can’t go,” he said.

Eli stared at him. “What?”

“The Heart just told me it can’t go to the Dead Mountain,” Josef said again.

“Since when do you talk to your sword?” Eli scoffed.

Josef gave him a murderous look. “It’s more like a feeling, but I know what it said. It told me it has to stay here.”

Eli sighed. “Well, did it give a reason?”

Josef crossed his arms. “Sure, it explained all its motivations to me in great detail. And then we sat down and had tea.”

“Okay, okay,” Eli said, putting his hands up. “The Heart stays. But if it’s not going, then you shouldn’t either.”

Josef arched an eyebrow, and Eli shook his head. “I’m not saying anything about your fighting prowess, but if you can’t bring your big weapon I’d probably have an easier time sneaking in alone.”

“How does that make sense?” Josef growled.

“It’s the first rule of thievery,” Eli said with a shrug. “One person makes less noise than two. And I’d much rather you be here with Nico and the Heart than stuck on some mountain with just me and your pot-metal normal blades.”

Josef’s hands flicked to the blades on his hip, as though he was about to show Eli just how dangerous those pot-metal blades could be, but Eli was already walking over to the cranny where he’d dropped his bag.

“If I go solo then I can do things I can’t do with you two,” he said, pulling a folded bundle of black clothing out of his sack. “Anyway”—he began to take off his jacket—“it’s not like I’m planning on fighting. I’ll have a much easier time giving trouble the slip if I don’t have to worry about you and your bash-happy ways.”

Josef frowned but didn’t argue the point. Satisfied, Eli leaned on the wall and began pulling off his boots. He placed them carefully beside his pack, followed by his jacket. Then, standing in the snow in his shirtsleeves and socks, Eli shook out the folded black cloth and started to pull it over his head. It was a tight fit. The fabric was obviously meant to go over the skin, not other clothes, but Nico didn’t blame Eli for layering. Even with Karon there to keep him warm, the cold was bitter. When the black cloth was wrapped all the way down to his feet, Eli slid on a pair of padded black boots, completing the ensemble. When he straightened up, he was dressed toe to chin in a black catsuit not unlike the one Giuseppe Monpress had worn back in Gaol.

“Don’t ever tell the old man I actually wore this,” Eli said, pulling the last bit, the black mask, over his head. “I’d never hear the end. Of course”—he grinned behind the thin cloth—“mine has improvements.”

“I hope they make you demonproof,” Josef said. “You’ve got four hours before dark; don’t dawdle.”

“Yes, Mother.”

Josef snorted indignantly. Eli gave them a final wave and started down the slope, half walking, half sliding over the ice-crusted snow. Despite being a black dot on a field of white, he vanished almost instantly. Still, Nico and Josef watched for several minutes more, just in case.

Finally, Josef turned around. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s see if we can find something that will burn before I turn blue.”

Nico nodded and hurried after him. For the next half hour they scoured the ravine and the slope they’d come from, eventually gathering enough burnables to make a fire. It was a small, pathetic thing, but at least it was bright and warm, and they huddled together beside it.