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It all started off as planned, Ohval moving slowly into the antechamber, Inej dropping silently behind her from the rafters the way she did—right up until Ohval kicked backward without so much as a glance, catching Inej square in the sternum and sending her flying across the courtyard.
When Ohval redirected the first knives Inej threw at her, the rest of them got to their feet. Kaz immediately disappeared into the depths of the house, now that the doors were unlocked, while Tolya and Jesper joined Inej in the attack, both of them pulling guns on her.
With a wave of her hand, Ohval took care of the guns, knocking Tolya's out of his hand and bending the barrels of Jesper's. That was going to take hours to fix properly, even with his powers. "Foul play."
She gave him a very small, challenging smile.
Tolya started using his Heartrender powers on Ohval, and she drew all of Inej's knives and Tolya's sword to her, spun them around, and sent them flying back at their owners. All three of them dove out of the way just in time.
"Seriously offside," Jesper complained. There was a code, in a fight, and using other people's weapons against them was outside that code.
Clearly, Ohval didn't think herself bound by any code. Which Jesper supposed was understandable, since they'd invaded her house, but still … a person liked to think they were in some semblance of a fair fight.
Ohval, on the other hand, seemed to want to think she was in a silent fight. She glared at Jesper, withdrew a chain from her hair, and flung it at him. It wrapped itself around his neck just enough to cut his air off. Frantically, he reached for it, trying to pull it off the normal way. As he struggled with it, sidelined, trying to breathe, the fight went on around him.
Only when he determined he was going to have to use his powers on it did he get anywhere. And since he used them rarely, other than while shooting, and he was a bit distracted by slowly strangling to death, that was a harder task than he'd have liked it to be. If they got out of here, he would practice again, he promised the spirit of his mother. He would get better at this.
Jesper started to make some headway with the chain. Ohval glanced his way, noticed, and it tightened again, sending him to his knees and then to the ground, feebly clutching at it, desperate for air.
At some point, he heard Tolya call Ohval's name and start talking to her in what Jesper vaguely recognized as Shu. Or he thought he heard it. It was hard to concentrate on anything over the rushing in his ears as he began to lose consciousness.
"Come on now, little rabbit," he whispered to himself. Taken out twice in one night by the same woman? Not Jesper Fahey. He was going to make his mother proud. Putting all his energy into it, everything he remembered from those early teachings, he drew the chain away from his throat and snapped it.
Behind them, the front entrance blew open. Wylan did know what he was doing. And Jesper had been right all those times—they had definitely needed a demo man.
Nina and Zoya came hurrying in with Wylan behind them, and Zoya lost no time using her powers to knock Ohval down.
Strange that it only started to feel like a fair fight now that it was six against one.
Nina and Zoya were both using their Heartrender powers. Ohval was on her feet again, moving jerkily, but still moving. Jesper started to put his guns back into working order, but it was a slow process.
And then pain. Blinding pain, like every vein in his body wanted to burst through his skin.
"Fascinating, isn't it?" Ohval said. Through the pain, Jesper had the strangest feeling she was talking directly to him. "The amount of trace metal there is in the body. Iron, for instance, in the blood."
Behind her, the doors slid open, and Kaz Brekker, calm and untouched, came through them, pushing an old man in a chair.
"Here she is! Sweetheart, we have visitors. Art collectors from Kerch," the old man said, and immediately Ohval let them go, all the fight gone out of her.
"I know, dear," she said in a sweet voice that seemed quite at odds with the cold-blooded woman who had nearly killed all of them, twice, in a matter of hours. "I was just about to offer them tea." Turning, she spoke again to Tolya in Shu.
Kaz limped toward her, gesturing at them all. "These are the collectors I was telling you about. They'll be pleasantly surprised to meet you, the great thief of the art world," he said gently to the old man. Looking up at the rest of them, he added the twist. "The Disciple."
"This is the Disciple?" Jesper wondered what he had been like in the height of his abilities.
"Have we met before?" the Disciple asked, frowning up at Kaz.
"Yes. In your room, just now. And I've met your wife. In Bhez Ju. We had tea there."
"Bhez Ju Museum. The support beams are under every second section of the floor. The others creak. Important to know the secrets of a place," the Disciple offered, in a voice that held echoes of the great thief he had once been. Jesper would have given a great deal of kruge to spend an hour asking this man questions, gleaning what he knew from the dimming of his mind.
"Truly." Above the Disciple's head, Kaz looked at Ohval with that insufferable look he got when his plan had worked perfectly—and at no cost to him, Jesper thought, touching his bruised throat gingerly.
Ohval turned to Tolya, speaking again in Shu, sounding like the deadly warrior she was and not like the loving wife the Disciple knew.
Tolya replied quietly, respectfully. Jesper caught the word "Neshyenyer", but not much else.
The Disciple caught it, too. "The Neshyenyer? I stole it for her."
In the wife voice again, Ohval said, "Please, dear."
But he kept going. "It was the last piece I stole before we decided I should retire. Anyway, you couldn't really call it stealing. It was hers to begin with. She made it."
"I'm sorry," Jesper said. "Did you say she made it?" Because if so, that would make Ohval—a Saint.
The Disciple got to his feet, tottering toward her. When their hands met, it was evident nothing else existed for either of them but that simple touch. "Hours of work. Prayers. And tears." He caressed her cheek with the back of his knuckles. "To fight the unkillable army created by the clock worker Kho."
Tolya took up the story. "Three days and three nights she fought the unstoppable soldiers. And when the last soldier fell, she laid down the weapon. And it was named Neshyenyer. 'Relentless'." Everyone took a knee except for Kaz. "We are honored to be in your presence, Sankta Neyar."
"Sankta Neyar?" Inej breathed softly. Two Saints met in one lifetime. Jesper smiled, pleased for his friend.
Ohval—Neyar—ignored all of them. Holding the Disciple's hands, she led him back to his chair, saying softly, "Come, my love. Let's get you to bed."
From the moment he had appeared, he had been her whole focus. Everything she could see. She had ended the fight for his safety. Would he do that, Jesper wondered, drop everything for one person? He wanted to look at Wylan, to … make sure he was all right, to wonder if they could have been like this someday if Jesper hadn't been such a fool, but … he didn't.
