The Legend of Eli Monpress(339)

Josef arched his eyebrows, impressed. “Good. Tell them all to start making swords. I’m going to need a hundred at least, preferably more, made from the blackest, cheapest metal you can give me.”

“What game is this?” Izo said. “You’ve got the greatest awakened sword in the world right there on your chest. Why should I waste my men and resources making you pot-metal blades?”

Josef lay back again. “Those are my terms,” he said. “If you don’t like them, find someone else to fight Sted.”

Izo looked down with a snarl. “All right, a hundred blades. Anything else?”

“Yes,” Josef said. “I’m still healing. If you want me in any condition to fight in three days, you’ll keep yourself and your doctors away. The only person I want staying with me is Nico. Everyone else will have to leave.”

“Done,” Izo said, turning to face Tesset. “You don’t have a problem leaving the girl here?”

Sparrow opened his mouth to protest, but Tesset was faster. “Not if I am allowed to stay with her as her guard.”

Josef looked at Nico, who gave him the thinnest hint of a nod.

“I’m fine with that,” Josef said, making himself comfortable again. “Remember, don’t touch me for three days or I won’t be fit to fight an old man like you, much less a monster like Sted.”

Izo seethed with rage, but turned away without a retort. “You,” he said, glaring at Tesset. “Keep an eye on both of them. Nothing is to disturb his sleep. If the Council messes this up for me, I’ll hang all of you by your own guts, just see if I don’t. And you”—he turned to Sparrow—“I hope you talked with your Sara, because the plan is going ahead as agreed.”

“Assuming, of course, you hold up your end,” Sparrow said.

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.