“You’ll have to excuse Devi. She’s just…horrible,” I finished, when no more accurate description came to mind. “Of course we’ll share our food.” I glared at Devi. “If not for Eli and his army, we’d be headed toward Pandemonia in the company of a bite-sized demon right now.”
Devi tried to incinerate me with her gaze. “And who will we be sharing with, exactly? What’s the deal with you and this ‘army’?”
Eli squared his shoulders. “I am a sentinel. It’s a position of great honor and responsibility. And we’re—”
“They’re nomadic religious relics who believe that when a human host is killed, its soul returns to the well.” Reese glanced at each of the rest of us, and I recognized the soapbox he was about to step up onto, though usually his hot button was Church conspiracy theories. “During the war, when the Church offered us protection in exchange for walls, rules, and service, Eli’s people struck out on their own, believing that obedience to their holy imperative would save them.”
“Holy imperative?” Anabelle turned to Eli for an explanation.
“We believe it’s our duty to return as many souls to the well as possible by slaying every demon we meet.”
Reese huffed. “The Church says it put you guys out of business fifty years ago.”
Actually, the Church said it had hunted the nomads into extinction to rid the world of a false faith almost as threatening to the human spiritual condition as were demons themselves.
“The Church lies,” Eli said through clenched teeth. No one argued. “Our numbers have dwindled along with the rest of humanity. But our mission is clear, and those who commit to it will find peace in the next life.”
“Well, inthislife, you’ve lived in the badlands a lot longer than we have, so if we’re going to share our food”—Devi aimed a pointed glance at Grayson—“why don’t you share the details about how you’ve survived out here on your own for a century.”
“They haven’t,” I said softly, and everyone turned to look at me as the vague mental connection I’d made came into sharper focus in my head. “You’re not surviving out here, are you? Your way of life is dying, and that’s why the Church doesn’t kill you anymore. They know the badlands will do that for them. But the problem isn’t the degenerates, is it?”
Eli shook his head slowly, and I knew I’d guessed right. “We can handle the monsters, even a dozen at a time,” he said. “Watching for degenerates has become second nature. Killing them is routine.” He waved one hand at the floor, indicating the corpse still lying two stories below. “Theyare the problem.”
Grayson frowned. “Kastor and his people?”
Eli nodded, and Maddock watched him closely. “They’re pillagers. Raiders. Savages. They’re smarter and quieter than degenerates, but less predictable than the Church. They stalk us. They strike when food is scarce and we’re weak. They take those in their prime. Older bodies don’t last as long, and kids are too much work—the pillagers would rather let us raise them.”
“They steal yourpeople?” Grayson’s voice trembled, and Reese put one arm around her.
“We fight, and we usually kill a couple of them, but we lose a few of our strongest young people in every raid,” Eli said. “Our division can’t survive any more loss.”
“Where do they take them?” Annabelle asked.
Melanie watched the entire exchange wide-eyed.
“To the Lion’s Den. We followed them once, but the city is too big. Too…dangerous.”
“It can’t be breached?” Reese sounded doubtful, and both Maddock and Finn were noticeably quiet.
“They would probably throw the gates open for us if we actually knocked. It’s getting back out that would be the problem. No one leaves the Lion’s Den alive.” Eli shrugged. “After every raid we pack up and move on, hoping they won’t find us again for a while. But they always do eventually. We don’t really have anywhere to go.”
“You stay in the south and the east to avoid most of the Church cities,” I guessed, and Eli nodded. “But it’s too cold in the north for most of the year, and if you go west…”
“The lion pounces,” he finished.
“So let us travel with you,” I said as soon as the idea hit me, and Finn turned to me in surprise. “Just until the baby is born. We can protect you from Kastor’s people. You can teach us. None of us has ever delivered an infant, and we’ve only survived in the badlands by robbing Church supply shipments. We can’t do that forever.”
“Nina…,” Maddock began.
“We need them,” I insisted. “We need to know what they can teach us.” I turned to Eli. “And you needus.We don’t just release demons back into the world, we vanquish them, which denies them the opportunity to possess any more of your people. And any one exorcist”—I gestured to Reese, Devi, and Maddock in turn—“is faster and stronger than your best five soldiers combined. If you don’t believe me, give us a test.”
“It’s not me you’d have to convince,” Eli said. “I’ve seen you in action. Let me return Tobias and Micah to my family, and then I’ll present your offer to Brother Isaiah. If he says yes, you’ve got a deal.”
I smiled at Melanie, truly hopeful on her baby’s behalf for the first time in weeks.
As soon as Eli left, Maddock tried to undermine my plan. He wanted to put distance between us and Pandemonia as soon as possible, and he knew we could move faster on our own.
I understood his fear, butnothingwas more important to me than Mellie and the baby. Fortunately, everyone but Reese agreed with me that we stood to gain as much from the Lord’s Army as they stood to gain from us.
