Page 20 of The Infernal Battalion

Without her, Winter would be dead several times over—​at the fight against the ice-​wielding Penitent in the forest, and again when the blizzard had caught them in the mountains. After all that, she had to trust Alex, but she still didn’t feel like she understood her. The girl didn’t seem to be able to take anything seriously, but there was something beneath the surface that her laughter never touched.

“Anyway,” Alex said, emerging from under the bed with a leather sack, “you know as well as I do that if the Beast isn’t stopped, that’s the end for all of us. Hiding here in the Mountain is just buying time. So if I have a choice between helping you and maybe dying, or putting my head under the covers until a tide of red-​eyes starts climbing the walls, you can count me in.” She shoved some wadded-up clothes into the sack, then looked up with a bright smile. “Does that make sense?”

“What about Maxwell?” Winter said.

“What about him?” There was a hint of real pain under Alex’s facade, quickly erased. “He’s dead, and I’m sorry about it. But it’s not going to stop me from doing what needs to be done.”

Winter shook her head. It was pointless to argue—​the fact was, she needed Alex’s help, and in any case, the girl was impossible to talk out of something once she’d put her mind to it. I just wish, for once, that helping me could lead someone to a happy ending.

Alex was still packing. There were a surprising number of hiding places in such a small room. Every little table and chair seemed to have something stuck to its bottom, and every pillow had a secret pocket. So far Alex had produced quite a few coins, several small tools whose purposes Winter didn’t know, and an assortment of knives.

“Are you afraid the Eldest is going to come by and search the place?” Winter said, as Alex extracted a roll of silver Vordanai bits from a hollow candlestick.

“What? Oh.” She looked down at the coins. “No. It’s just habit. I don’t like to leave too much stuff lying around.” She shook her head and put the coins in her pocket. “So, where are we going?”

“Vordan, eventually,” Winter said. “But we’re going to have to take a roundabout route.”

“And we think Janus has been taken by the Beast?”

“It’s our best guess,” Winter said. That was starting to sink in, like a shard of glass wedged in her chest slowly wiggling itself deeper every time she spoke the words aloud.

“Hell,” Alex said, pulling the drawstring on her bag tight. “I was hoping to get the chance to thank him.”

“I think,” said a man’s voice from behind Winter, “that the best way to thank him is to finish what he started.”

Winter turned to find Abraham standing in the corridor, hands clasped at the small of his back. He wore the same loose robe that the Eldest and his priests did. Winter didn’t know him as well as she knew Alex, but his healing demon had saved her hand from rot and spared the lives of several of her wounded soldiers. He had soft brown eyes and an easy smile that never seemed quite free of a deep sadness.

“What do you mean?” Alex said.

“From what Winter has told me, Janus wanted to free the world from the Priests of the Black. He might not have known it, but that meant dealing with the Beast one way or another. So it might be argued that this is the continuation of his mission.”

Alex snorted. “There’s a priest’s argument if I’ve ever heard one. I was going to come and see you before we left—don’t worry. I’m not sneaking out this time, remember?”

“No need,” Abraham said. “If Winter will have me, I’m coming with you.”

“You are?” Winter said. “Why?”

“For the same reasons as Alex, I suspect. This is the time to do what I can, if there ever was one. I owe my life to the Eldest and the people of the Mountain, and the best way I can defend them is by stopping the Beast.” He looked down. “And there are some things in the outside world I left... unfinished. While the Priests of the Black hunted me, I didn’t dare hope I might find some resolution, but if we are successful in defeating the Beast...”

“You realize the odds are high that we’re going to die trying,” Winter said.

“Of course.” Abraham looked her in the eye. “I am fully prepared for that possibility.”

“I’m not,” Alex said. She crossed the room in a few strides and wrapped her arms around Abraham. “I can’t tell you not to come. But you’re not allowed to die, you understand?”

Abraham ruffled her hair playfully. “The same goes for you.”

*

In a surprisingly short time—​the Mountain people were nothing if not efficient—​their little expedition was provisioned and ready. They had six horses, shaggy, short-​legged mountain breeds that would be sure-​footed on bare rock. The Eldest had insisted on loading them with as much food as they could carry, despite Winter’s protests that they could resupply once they reached civilization.

“We have sufficient,” he told Winter. “And I could not bear it if the world was consumed by the Beast because I was stingy with a loaf of bread.”

Only the Eldest and the Ghost had accompanied them to the exit from the valley, a narrow crack in a sheer vertical cliff that was practically invisible from any distance. From here, Winter could see the whole thing laid out in front of her, neatly terraced fields and wide stretches of pasture dotted with grazing sheep. Such a calm place, so close to Elysium. She still couldn’t believe it, sometimes.

“I will convey your warning to Queen Raesinia,” the Ghost said. “I pray that we will meet again in Vordan, Winter Ihernglass. The hopes of the world go with you.”

Winter had thought about adding a message for Cyte, as well, and decided against it. She probably thinks I’m dead by now. Either I’ll get to see her when I make it to Vordan, or I won’t, and at least she won’t have to live with false hope. She extended her hand, and the Ghost shook it carefully. At the back of her mind, Infernivore raised its hackles at the close contact with another demon, ready to spring forth at Winter’s command.