I glanced at Rose, then drew June. I reversed her and passed her to Rose handle-first.
“Hi, June,” Rose said. She had to adjust the coat to reach far enough, but she ran one hand along the blade, where patterns had been scratched into the metal. Her hand was shaking, in the moment before she set it on the solid metal.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“I’m thinking… no, I didn’t get much useful info out of the book on glamours. But I did check out Valkyrie before I recommended it to you. Binding spirits of the dead to objects. Using their power… um. I just need to remember how to do it.”
“Is this useful?”
“It’s… empirical data, one way or the other.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“It’s what it is. Unless you have better ideas?” Rose asked.
I shook my head. “No. Go for it, whatever you’re doing.”
“June,” Rose said, more authoritarian in tone, raising the hatchet overhead. “Come forth.”
Rose swung the hatchet down.
Cold air blasted the two of us, and when the dust and snow cleared, June was on her hands and knees in front of us.
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
“Adjusting the temperature,” Rose said. “June? The cold of the cabin, with the door closed. The cold of the room when you tried to get the fire going.”
“Hey,” I said. “You’re-”
I felt it. The cold air. Unpleasant, biting at my exposed flesh.
You’re going to make it worse.
Except she wasn’t. This cold didn’t exist in an eerie, impossible unity with the heat and dryness. It was what it was, and it replaced the pre-existing weather conditions.
At the far end of the bridge, Conquest turned his head to look at us.
“Stop,” Rose ordered. “Rest, like you did when you couldn’t get the fire going.”
June looked up, and the cold started to fade in intensity.
“Return,” Rose said. “Firewood, remember?”
June disappeared into the hatchet, much as she had entered it in the first place.
Conquest was making his way back to us. He was at no risk of falling from the bridge, because the bridge was essentially an extension of him.
“You’ve pissed him off,” I said.
“Okay,” Rose said. “Thinking…”
The Lord had long strides, and he was able to move with confidence, despite the shaky nature of the bridge, the unsteady bits and the parts with weapons littering them. When he strode forward, spears and swords were kicked free, to flip over in the air until they disappeared into the darkness below.
“Did you plan to piss him off?” I asked.
“I planned to study the effect on the area. Which, if you’re right, is an effect over him. Can it be influenced? Can we arrest control over it? Which is why we need to think and figure something out.”
“And?” I asked, but it was too late to get an answer. He was in earshot now.
We weren’t about to discuss strategies against him while he was here.
Wait, if this place was an extension of him… could he hear us all the way along?
That was a daunting thought. Had we said anything damning?
Was that why he’d left us be?
He stepped past the threshold, and he brought the gray-black snow with him.
Volcanic ash, not snow.
“This will do,” he said, surveying the area.
I felt strangely okay, better than I had before he’d left.
It wasn’t just having had the chance to talk. I felt okay because the weather wasn’t bearing down on me.
June had broken the effect, and the heat was taking its time to bleed back into our surroundings. It was still cold, but it wasn’t cold and hot.
That said something. I just wasn’t sure what.
“Can I assume you’ll cooperate?” the Lord asked.
“No,” Rose said, in the same moment I said, “Yes.”
We exchanged looks, annoyed with each other. Saying no did nothing except give him an excuse to act against us. The only option was to say…
“Yes,” I said, again, “You’re free to assume whatever you want, but I may rescind my agreement at any time. I presume you’ll punish me at that point.”
“Then I’ll discuss this with you,” Conquest addressed me. “What do you need, to summon a dark power to my realm?”
I thought, hard. Not about what I actually required, but the nature of the question.
“A hell of a lot more courage,” I said.
“Fear of me will have to do in a pinch,” Conquest said. “Do not be facetious. You are in my realm and under my thumb. I do not think you want to fight me. In terms of resources, materials, time, and location…”
Maybe…
“Books,” I said. “If I were to do this, I’d need books.”
Rose snapped her head around, looking at me.
“Which?”
“Texts from a building protected by a magic effect,” I said. “With names, rules for rituals, words for the contracts…”
“There is no need for these things,” he said. “You will summon the entity, and it will attack indiscriminately. Let me change my question. What is the bare minimum you require to bring one of these beings forth?”
Fuck.
I kept my mouth shut.
“You will answer, or I will punish your companion,” he said.
I glanced at Rose.
“You gave her your coat. You’re attached to her. I must assume you would be upset if she were disfigured or crippled.”
Fuck.
I clenched my hands at my sides. The locket’s chain bit into the webbing of my hands. But it wouldn’t be any use here.
“This is another step on your journey, diabolist. You will do as I say, and you will do as I say hereafter. Everything you do will reinforce my power over you. If you obey, then you will continue to obey. If one of you refuses, I punish the other, and that punishment resonates. Accept what is, and this will be relatively painless for you.”
“Not so painless for the bystanders,” I said. “The people you want to sic a demon on?”
“I am patient. I am effectively immortal, and torture is a part of my power and domain. Decide, one way or the other.”
“Can I have a private word with my colleague?” I asked.
“You’ve had your chance. Decide, or perhaps I will make both of you suffer.”
So we did talk in private after all, or was this another word trick? “When you say we’ve had our chance, do you mean here, just now, or do you mean in general?”
“Blake!” Rose called out. “Not the fucking time to quibble!”
He reached down and picked up Rose with one hand, gripping her wrist and hauling her into the air..
“Hey!” I hollered.
“You aren’t grasping the gravity of your situation, diabolist.”
“I’m grasping it,” I said, “I’m trying to adapt to it, and that means figuring shit out!”
“The only adaptation I require is your bending to my will. The only things you’ll want to figure out will be how to serve me.”
“Okay,” I said, “Fine! Cutting past the shit and the figuring… you can hear anything in your realm, so there’s no real point to me whispering and conspiring with Rose, is there?”
He tilted his head slightly.
“Got any bright ideas, Rose? Because I’m running pretty dry, here.”