The Legend of Eli Monpress(360)

The glass broke over her shoulders, and Nico grunted in pain as the shards sliced her skin. The ground shook under her feet as the wall landed, and then, quickly as it had happened, it was over. Nico cracked her eyes open. She was standing perfectly in the center of the window, surrounded by broken glass. Eli was choking and panting beneath her, grabbing his throat, which was bright red where the rope had cut in. Right beside his knee, buried by the broken glass, she could see Tesset’s hand, still wrapped in the threads of her coat. The rest of him was lost beneath the collapsed wooden beams.

She reached down and helped Eli to his feet. “Are you all right?”

“No.” Eli coughed. “I’m bruised, beaten, and bloody … and alive, thanks to you.”

Nico smiled and bent over, reaching down for the thread of her coat. It woke when she brushed it, sliding up her arm like a snake. She winced when she touched Tesset’s skin. His hand was still warm, and she felt a twinge of guilt. For all that he’d been her captor, he’d been a good man. Too good to die like this. But she couldn’t think about that now. She kept her arm down, letting her coat reweave itself across her body until she was completely covered again.

“Let’s go get Josef,” she said, standing up.

“Right,” Eli said, rubbing his neck as he looked around at the wreckage. “I don’t suppose you know what that was just now.”

“No,” Nico said, picking her way quickly through the debris. “And I don’t care. All I want to do is get to Josef.”

“Fair enough,” Eli muttered, starting after her.

Their building wasn’t the only one that had collapsed. The dirt roads were now more like tunnels through great piles of broken timber, and they had to change direction several times when the way was blocked. The air was filled with horrible sounds, mostly the demon’s horrible screaming mixed with explosions and the sound of buildings collapsing, though at this point Nico was surprised there was anything still left to collapse. But despite the horrible noises, she pressed on, letting the sounds lead her toward the center of town, where Josef was.

They were almost there when Eli broke the silence.

“Nico,” he said, quickening his pace until he was walking beside her. “Why did you do that?”

His voice was soft, but Nico flinched anyway. “What?”

“Save me.”

She took a deep breath, pushing a fallen beam out of the way. “Because Josef would have saved you. And because we’re a team.” She stopped to look at him. “Comrades don’t leave each other in the lurch. Aren’t those your words?”

Eli nodded, but his face was closed and expressionless, just as it had been during those awful three days in the cabin. Nico looked away, blinking back tears.

Did you really expect anything to change?

Nico shook her head. But then, just as she reached out to knock a broken beam out of the way, Eli grabbed her human hand. She froze, but he didn’t let her go.

“Thank you,” he said, squeezing her hand in his.

Nico looked up in surprise.

He gave her a wide, genuine smile before letting her go. Nico didn’t move. She just stood there, staring as Eli walked past her and started pulling at a fallen window frame that blocked their way.

“Are you coming?” he said, looking over his shoulder.

Grinning wide, Nico ran to help Eli tear down the last bits of debris between them and the building where Josef had landed.

The outer edges of Izo’s bandit town were completely destroyed. Great piles of wood and broken glass lay over the once orderly streets, and those buildings that were standing were little more than skeletons teetering on supports that still occasionally twitched in terror. But down on what had been the road to the canyon’s southern exit, the rubble was stirring.

Glass slid crashing to the ground as Tesset pushed himself up with a groan, tossing the splintered wood beams aside with one hand. His other hand was still on the ground, fingers dug into the dirt where he’d braced himself to make a shelter of his own body for Sparrow, who was curled in a ball on the ground, coughing and clutching his bleeding nose.

“Do you see them?” he choked out.

“No,” Tesset said, surveying the wreckage.

Sparrow began to curse loudly, tearing off his ruined coat and using the silk lining to wipe the layer of dust from his face. “This is just bleeding brilliant. No thief, no demonseed, no legendary sword, and no missing Shaper wizard. Let’s just quit now, before Sara sticks us on file duty for the rest of our lives, how about?”

“No need for that quite yet,” Tesset said. “We know where they’re going.”