"We should kill them," he said. "It would be a simple matter for us. Even the mage-"
"Let them live," she urged. "The edicts of our kind tell us that we are to avoid direct confrontation whenever possible. This scene will draw attention."
"They will not stop," he said.
"They must. There is nowhere left for them to turn."
Zeal's hands bunched into fists. "They know we exist."
"Who would believe them?" she said as she kissed his throat and licked a single bead of sweat that descended along the hard, glistening muscles of his neck. Below, the humans on the street were quickly out of view.
"You are certain they will stop?" he asked.
"Of course," Tamara said as she turned the red-haired man to face her. "What choice do they have?"
With a passionate cry, she threw her arms around her husband, kissing him full on the mouth. He returned the kiss greedily, roughly caressing her hard, trim flesh. The call of the flames rose up within his body.
As they kissed, small piles of trash burst into flame on the rooftop.
Five
Temples with healers who were not above taking a healthy contribution to the church in return for treating heathens were not difficult to find in the financial district. Reisz's wound appeared worse than it actually had been and when the healer was finished with him, a new layer of bright pink skin had appeared on his arm and he had regained the limb's full use. Several of Ord's minor cuts and bruises were removed by the healer before they left the temple and walked back toward the stables.
Burke admonished Cardoc for his independent ways, ordering him to stay visible at all times and keep close to the party. The Night Parade would be most worried about him, and his visible presence might cause them to stay away rather than move in for a second attack. Reisz eyed everyone on the street with suspicion. The Night Parade's members had expertise in disguising themselves as human and he stood ready to attack anyone who made the slightest move in his direction. Varina had stayed close to her husband, who was overcome with shame. He had done nothing in the fight, and his wife had almost been killed. The incident had weighed more heavily on the strongly built warrior than on his lover, who was grateful that they had made it out of the ambush alive.
At the stables, Myrmeen found the stable boy once more. He gazed at her with distress, but respected her privacy and did not ask what had happened. He led her to the small office, where she changed back into her warrior's attire. She emerged to hand the boy the remains of her dress with a straightforward command: "Burn this."
Myrmeen returned to the others, who were gathered near Cardoc's sleek black mount. Burke had been severely shaken. He looked at Myrmeen with a tired, haunted expression. "Last night I dreamt that if we didn't leave this city by nightfall tonight, we would all die here. My dream nearly came true this day."
"When I was little, the other children said that the Night Parade could make you have strange dreams," Myrmeen said. "Some would come true. Others would not."
Burke shook his head. "Vfe've taken a vote. The consensus is that we should take what we've learned to the local authorities then flee this nightmare-infested city."
"There are five of you," Myrmeen said quietly. "Did anyone vote to remain?"
"My wife and the mage."
"You didn't ask me," she said, angered at the thought of being forced to give up on the child she had never seen.
"Wfe're asking now."
"I can't go back," Myrmeen said. "I picture the girl in my mind. I wonder what her first words were. I need to know what they did to her, Burke."
Reisz cleared his throat. "I have something to say to Myrmeen in private, if that's all right."
The others nodded and Myrmeen allowed the curly-haired fighter to lead her to another part of the stables. Once they were alone, he ran his hand through his salt-and-pepper hair and stared at her with hard, dark eyes that had witnessed more death and brutality than Myrmeen would ever believe possible. "I must speak plainly," he said.
"Yes."
"You know that I have feelings for you. I always have. You are the only woman I have ever loved."
"Reisz, please," she said, her tension drifting away as she caressed the side of his face with a compassion she had worried was lost after the day's horrors. He tensed and gently forced her hand away. Her touch was more than he could bear.
"I was married for a time after you left us," Reisz said. "The woman loved me. I found that I could say, 'I love you,' easily enough, but the words were meaningless. After a time, she understood this and turned elsewhere to find the love I could not give her."
Myrmeen's compassion suddenly flared into anger. "Reisz, I don't know why you feel it necessary to bring all this up now, but I'm not going to accept the role of the woman who ruined your life. I never led you on and I never lied to you. You can forget it right now if you-"
"Shut up," he said painfully. "That's not it at all."
She stood before him, chest heaving in anger, waiting for him to continue.
"I'm telling you this so you understand that what is in the past is not always buried as deep as we would like to think," Reisz said. "You left us behind because we were reminders of what you had lost. Then you found yourself in the arms of a man who could give you what no man had offered you before: peace of mind, a chance to stop running, an opportunity to reinvent yourself. But none of that was what you really needed, was it?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"Did you love Haverstrom Lhal?" he asked.
"He was my husband."
"That does not answer my question."
She hung her head low, then looked away. "In my way, yes, I felt love for him. But after what Dak had put me through, I knew that I could never give myself completely to another. My body, my loyalty, and affection-these I could give. But my ability to love died with my child. It died that night, during the storm."
"Lost, perhaps, but not dead. If that were the case, you wouldn't be here. But there is a danger to what you are doing, a danger beyond the threat to our lives. Myrmeen, you have always been more interested in the quest, in the hunt for the prize, than in dealing with the rewards and the consequences of what you bring about. What will you do if we find your daughter? She will be a stranger to you, and you to her. You will have to try to love her, Myrmeen. It will change your life forever. Do you think you can do that?"
"I don't know," she said, a single tear threatening to fall from her eye. "But I need to… I need to find out, Reisz. I need to know if I'm really dead inside, or if I have something left to give."
Reisz nodded and tried to draw her into a comforting embrace. Myrmeen placed her hand on his chest to stop him.
"No," she said. "If you want to help me, you know what you have to do."
He touched her face gently, then turned away. They returned to the group. Burke and Ord were talking with the stable boy, getting the best directions back to the city's main gates.
"You won't be needing them," Reisz said. "I've changed my vote. We are Harpers, sworn to protect the Realms. I see no greater threat now than the villains we faced today. I say we stay and try to find them. After we've forced them to tell us what they know of Myrmeen's child, we will bring their organization to the end it deserves."
Burke looked at his wife and understood that he would receive no support there. Ord shook his head, anger and fear coursing through him. "Where do you suggest we start looking?" the boy spat. "Our dreams or the shadows that gather when the sun falls from the sky?"