He thought of the old assassin trainer who did not show the proper understanding of the emerging danger of spawn. Perhaps it was time the old man learned new lessons himself.
“I believe,” Justice said slowly, “that I have someone I want you to meet.”
Chapter Fifteen
She told Justice that her name was Willow.
Justice examined her face in the morning light as they ate around a small fire. She looked to him to be several years older than Raven, but there was a level of worldly experience to her that Raven did not yet possess.
“I grew up in the desert. A few months ago, right before the demons were banished, I saw a demon summoning during a slave auction in Freetown. One of the old priestesses brought it into a circle. It didn’t seem to be difficult.” Willow dipped her spoon in her bowl, relaying her story with little emotion. “I decided to try raising one of my own.” She shrugged, her eyes on her food. She ate as if she were starved and spoke with her mouth full. “It was even easier than I expected.”
“What would possess you to summon a demon when you had no idea if you could contain it?” Justice asked.
“I was with a wagon train on its way to the mining villages, and about to be sold to the miners. What did I have to lose?” She took another bite. “The priestess threatened her demon with the Demon Lord himself, and the Demon Lord owned demon fire. What do you suppose it means that I, too, can control it as well as I do?”
She’d been nothing more than a slave, and still, she was arrogant enough to believe she’d been spawned by the most powerful demon of them all. While Justice could not deny it was a possibility, he found he did not believe it. Other than that she was violent by nature and could manipulate fire, her talents were not so extraordinary. She had not yet recovered them either. If she had, she would have tried to kill him. His disdain for her increased. She could not possibly hope to control the demon she raised forever. Sooner or later it would escape and turn on her.
But she alone knew for certain what had happened in that burned village, and could attribute the blame for it to Raven. If Justice took Willow to the Temple of Immortal Right and presented her to Siege, other than for the natural demon allure she exuded that the old man claimed all women possessed, she would appear harmless to him. Justice would have her claim it was as he had told Siege—Raven had enslaved the men, forced them to round up the rest of the villagers, and burned them all to death in the goddess’s temple. He would say that Willow had been spared only because she, too, was spawn, and sent by Raven to deliver a message to the assassins.
And because Willow appeared harmless, Siege would not feel the need to call in other Godseekers to question and test her. By the time he realized his mistake it would be too late— Justice would have the support he needed. He did not intend to wander these mountains in search of Raven without sufficient protection. He could see the benefits of using spawn to hunt other spawn. As long as Willow expended her demon energies elsewhere, he could use her to tighten the trap around Raven. Once Raven was captured and the Godseekers saw the extent of the problem, Justice could take over from Siege and have the assassins begin rounding up any others. Those spawn who wished to work for him might see their lives spared, as long as they understood their positions.
He hardly trusted a slave who believed mortals should worship her. If Willow tried to challenge him, or summon another demon against him, he would kill her without hesitation.
…
Blade and Raven waited an extra few hours after the others were gone to depart.
Then they took a trail near the mouth of the small river that fed the lake and walked upstream for a short distance before cutting through the forest.
Several mornings later, as they continued to travel the mountain’s circumference, an oppressive weight in the air suggested they might be close to their destination. Blade first noticed an unintended reluctance to go forward, then an unaccountable heaviness in his legs that had not been present the day before.
Raven’s pretty black curls gleamed in the bright shafts of sunlight streaming through the rocks and trees, red highlights shining like coppery threads interlaced with onyx.
“What do you suppose is on the other side of the boundary?” she asked.
“You would have grown up hearing the same stories I did,” Blade said. The past few nights had been long ones for him, and he was not in the best of moods. He had slept badly for fear he would awaken to find her gone to the demon boundary again, and that this time, he would not be able to follow her.
“But you’ve lived elsewhere and met people from different parts of the world. Were their stories the same?”
“For the most part, yes.”
“Is that why you sing of the sea? Because you believe them?”
“I sing of the sea?” Then, he remembered the song he had used as a signal to her when he returned from the temple. “That. It’s one I learned from an old trader who used to come into my saloon maybe once or twice a year. He said his grandfather used to sing it to him and talk of a sea his grandfather’s grandfather had claimed to have sailed.” It was one of very few songs Blade had learned over the years appropriate to sing to a woman. “I suppose the thought of a sea so vast that huge ships take weeks to sail across it fascinates me as much as it would anyone else who’s only ever seen mountains and deserts.”
“There must be a lot of people on the other side of such a sea if they can build ships capable of sailing it,” Raven said. “Or maybe it’s all a lie, and the world really ends at the goddesses’ boundary. What if we make it through, only to fall off the world’s edge?”
She sought an excuse not to proceed. He would not give her one. If they could not cross, they would have to find shelter on this side of the boundary for the winter. And soon.
“That’s nothing more than an old wives’ tale. The temple has a library filled with books,” Blade said. “Some of those books predate the immortals and contain maps drawn by Old World cartographers. We won’t be falling off any edge because the world is round. The real question is whether or not people still exist on the other side of the boundary.”
She clung stubbornly to her opposition. “Some of the older Godseekers claim demons destroyed the rest of the world, and that’s why the goddesses trapped them in the desert.”
“It’s possible,” he conceded. “It’s also possible the Godseekers encourage the spread of those stories because they want to keep people in goddess territory, and therefore under their control.”
They did not talk for a long time after that.
Late in the morning, they crested a bluff and found a thick, green forest spread below them. Beyond the forest, the world dropped away. A dense mist blanketed the entire horizon.
This, then, was the boundary.
The world truly did end here.
“I didn’t expect it to be quite so…vast,” Raven said.
As she gazed at the layer of mist extending from the base of the mountain to the horizon, dread washed through her. This seemed to be very much like the half-world of the boundary between the demon and the mortal worlds, only this one did not welcome her.
In fact, she felt the opposite.
She did not believe she could cross this. The thought of making the attempt left her physically ill.
Blade crooked an elbow around her neck and drew her head to his shoulder, running his fingers through the back of her hair and tugging on a fistful of curls, sending a shiver of heat to the toes of her boots. The air was milder here, and he had thrown back the hood of his coat.
“The goddesses are gone,” he reminded her. “All that’s left below is a lingering reminder of their existence. The mist can’t harm you.”