“What?” I heard Ty say.
Fuck.
“What are you doing here, Laird?” I asked.
“My nephew failed to defeat you and ran afoul of the Lord of Toronto,” Laird said. “I’m smoothing things over.”
“Clever subversion can be overlooked, as it raises my status further when I triumph regardless,” Conquest said. “To have someone undermine me and fail, they cannot get away with it, or Toronto would seem weaker as a whole in the world’s eyes. The elder Behaim is offering me some assistance for the time being.”
“Uncle bails Dunc out, huh?” I asked.
“Family looks after family. Or it should. Ah, here we are. Midnight,” Laird said. “Five minutes until the imp is free.”
“Changing the subject?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter enough to be worth discussing,” Conquest said.
It matters if I can remove two of your allies from the picture. Turning Conquest’s allies against him had been a plan for some time now.
“I think Laird wants to steal your throne from under you,” I said.
“I know what he wants,” Conquest said. “The elder Behaim, however, will take a sure thing in claiming Jacob’s Bell over the great risk of seizing and attempting to hold Toronto. What he wants and what he will do aren’t the same thing.”
“Yes,” Laird said.
“You would do better to focus on what’s going on here,” Conquest said. “On yourself. I know what you were planning. Your companion was kind enough to inform me.”
“I’m sorry,” Rose said.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Did he torture you?”
“No. He made me say it.”
I nodded. “It’s okay. Not surprised. I’m sorry.”
“You went and got other people involved?”
“Yes.”
“Without asking me. Stupid. So many things wrong with that plan.”
You’ve been through a lot. I’ll let that slide.
“Four minutes,” Laird said.
I was out of time.
Having Alexis and Ty here made me feel more vulnerable, not less.
“Then I should put my plan into action, I guess,” I said.
“You might want to try sounding more enthusiastic,” Laird said. “Give the impression of confidence where none exists.”
“Conquest,” I said, ignoring Laird.
“Yes?”
“The Seventh Seal.”
“Hm? Ah, yes,” Conquest said.
This was the moment of truth. He knew what I meant. I only had to let him consider it.
“Rose Thorburn,” Conquest said, taking hold of the chain that led to Rose’s shackle. “In the time we have remaining, I would like you to draw a circle. Bind the Imp’s book and its contents.”
Rose hesitated, then lurched to her feet. She moved like she was a puppet, not a person, fumbling through the books, clumsily pushing them aside, her fingers only dextrous when they found a book she could use.
“I’m not familiar with that particular terminology,” Laird said. “The seventh seal?”
“It’s not magic. It’s a movie,” I said. “A man challenges Death to a contest. I’m formally challenging Conquest.”
“That challenge will have to be quick,” Laird said. “You’re short on time.”
“I’m afraid you’re working from a flawed assumption, diabolist,” Conquest said.
“I’m afraid of that too,” I admitted.
Fuck, my heart was pounding so hard I wondered if he could hear it.
“It is the nature of humanity and, in fact, all living things, to vie against Death. Those contests occur every day.”
“And?”
“And thus Death may very well accept such contests. It fits with the natural order of things.”
“That makes sense,” I said.
“For Conquest, however, well, it is the nature of mankind to struggle against bondage. It is also the nature of man to ultimately yield to it. The forces that would control man are more tireless than the individual man.”
“You would argue there’s no point? It’s a foregone conclusion?”
“Yes,” Conquest said.
“Three minutes,” Laird said.
“Conquest is also about change,” I said. “Revolutions occur, dictators are toppled. It’s in human nature to change our reality as much as it is to go head to head with Death.”
“Change by triumph is the province of another Incarnation. Liberty, perhaps.”
“When one tyrant takes over from another, that’s not Liberty at work,” I argued.
“You’re talking about War, now. About Conflict. I am despair, loss, subjugation and pain, all made incarnate. I am not the battle, but the one who seizes that which lies in War’s wake.”
I clenched my fists. “You fucking know-”
“You would do well to show me respect, Thorburn. I have nothing to lose by saying no.”
“But you’re not going to, are you?” I asked. “You’re right. It’s in human nature to wage war against Death. That makes that contest possible. But it’s in your nature to crush people under your heel. Are you going to go against your nature and pass up the opportunity to crush someone? Me in particular?”
“I am not a slave to my nature. Many of my kin are, but few of my kin are lords of a city. I have resources they do not.”
This was the gamble, and I’d lost.
Necessitating a riskier gamble.
“What if I said you were a coward?” I asked.
“If you did, I would respond by subjecting your Rose to the worst I can offer, then turn my attention to your cabal, then to you,” Conquest said. “You would regret those words.”
“Oh shit,” I heard Ty mutter. “Torture?”
I didn’t begrudge him that, but I was kind of really glad that Alexis was staying quiet through all of this.
I had. If I could have said something to him without tipping Conquest off, I might have pointed out that torture here was entirely different from the kind of torture we might experience in the real world.
In the real world, there was only so much pain you could take before your mind or body gave out. In this realm, Conquest made the rules.
I tried to tell you guys what you were getting into.
“Are you calling me a coward, Blake Thorburn?” he asked, stressing the ‘are’.
I had to be very, very careful what I said.
“If you don’t accept my offer for a contest, I’ll call you weak,” I said. “Not a coward, since you’ve promised to go after my allies if I call you that. And if you threaten to go after them again, I’ll call you something worse. Because something as strong as you’re supposed to be should be content with doing your worst to me and me alone.”
He stared down at me, massive, as intimidating as fuck.
A lie. A delusion. I was banking everything on that, on the insecurity I’d guessed was at the root of him.
“I can and will make you regret those words, if you insult me,” Conquest said.
“If you do, at least have the guts to make me and me alone regret them.”
“If I accept, I will see this contest through, I will win, free to take my prize. If I refuse, you’ll follow through with the light oath you’ve made, insulting me, and I will be compelled to torment you in retaliation.”