Page 18 of The Infernal Battalion

“So what’s my basic nature?”

“A question I wouldn’t attempt to answer, Winter Ihernglass.” The Eldest’s smile widened. “But I can say this much: you are not someone who would abandon her friends, no matter the cost.”

“No,” Winter said, looking into her empty mug. “I suppose I’m not.”

*

The Ghost, waiting outside the high chamber, bowed deeply when Winter emerged.

“My apologies,” he said. “I was inconsiderate of your feelings.”

“I understand,” Winter said. “And you’re right. There’s really only one choice.”

“So I believe.”

Winter looked at the impassive mask and frowned. “What, exactly, do I need to do? I tried to use Infernivore on the Beast at least twice. The second time, it just abandoned the body before I could get a hold on it. The first time, though...” She thought back to that moment, when she and Jane had gripped each other, two demons thrashing in invisible coruscations of power. “It felt as though the Beast was devouring Infernivore as fast as Infernivore was absorbing the Beast. Like two snakes eating each other’s tails. I don’t know if Infernivore is strong enough.”

The Ghost nodded. “The Beast has a... core, one might say. The body into which it was first summoned. That is the center of its power. If that body is killed, another will take on the role, but the process would be inconvenient, so the Beast will keep the core safe as long as it can.”

“That’s Jane,” Winter said. The woman she’d loved, and who had betrayed her. “The Priests of the Black made her read the name of the Beast.”

“You must use Infernivore on her,” the Ghost said. “And at the same time, you must invite the Beast into your own body.”

“Invite it?” She remembered Jane’s glowing red eyes, the feeling of the Beast pressing at the gates of her soul, and shivered. “And that will help?”

“It will entangle it too deeply for it to pull back,” the Ghost said, then hesitated. “It should, at least. All of this is only theory, for obvious reasons.”

“That’s not particularly reassuring.”

“It’s the only chance we have,” the Ghost said. “We have to take it.”

“What happens to the Beast’s bodies? Do their minds return?” Winter frowned. “When I tried to catch the Beast with Infernivore in one of its other bodies, the body just... died.”

“As I said, we only have theories, and I can’t even speculate what might happen afterward. But...” The Ghost shook his head. “It does not seem likely that the taken will recover.”

If that’s true, that means Jane is truly gone. And Janus... Winter decided she wasn’t ready to think about that. We don’t know anything for certain.

“And...” She paused again, not sure she wanted to say it aloud. “What about me? If I invite the Beast into my body and destroy it?”

“Again, we don’t know. It may be that Infernivore will devour the Beast entirely.”

“But you don’t think so.”

The Ghost fixed her with his empty gaze. “They may destroy each other, and you in the process.”

So this could be a suicide mission, even if everything works. Winter set her jaw. She’d set out after the poisonous Penitent with twenty-​five soldiers and no guarantee of return, and that had been just to save Janus. If it helps everyone in the Second—​and maybe the world—​then it has to be worthwhile, doesn’t it?

“I understand the burden we’re placing on you,” the Ghost said. “What we’re asking. But you know—”

“I know. There’s no other choice.” I’m getting a little tired of hearing that. “Let’s find the Eldest. I need to look at a map.”

*

They reconvened in the high chamber after Winter had a chance to wash off the sweat of the day and wolf down a hasty meal. From the kitchen, she’d watched the Mountain people come and go, along with the handful of soldiers from the Girls’ Own who’d survived the journey here. They’d long ago swapped their uniforms for Mountain homespun, and aside from their darker hair and halting Murnskai it was hard to tell the two groups apart.

A surprisingly good map was waiting when she rejoined the Ghost and the Eldest. Though they were self-​reliant, the Mountain people weren’t ignorant of the outside world—​the Eldest had implied they had spies as far away as Mohkba, the Murnskai capital. So the map was a modern one, military precise on crisp waxed paper. It showed Murnsk west of the Votindri Mountains, a rough rectangle bounded by the mountains and the coast on its long sides, the river Bataria in the north, and the river Ytolin and the Vordanai border in the south. Two more large rivers, the Syzria and the Kovria, snaked across the center of the rectangle; Winter had crossed both with the Grand Army. Elysium and the Mountain were on the far eastern side of the map, nestled against the mountains.

“We cannot know where the Beast’s core is precisely,” the Ghost said. “But its limited range makes it possible to guess.” He drew a circle with one gloved finger in the center of the map. “We know it has bodies near us in the north, watching for you, and we know Janus is at Yatterny in the south”—​he tapped the city, at the mouth of the Ytolin—“so it follows the creature itself must be somewhere in between.”