"Yes!" he shouted as his body absorbed the lightning. His entire form became a brilliant white mass with slight indications of what may have been human anatomy within. He held the lightning within his body for as long as he could stand, then pointed both hands at the horizon. Twin bolts of white energy sailed from his fingers and struck the ground below. Then he was human again, but his clothing had been burned away.
"Crolus, you moron, you missed the whole thing," he shouted.
"I didn't," a voice said.
Zandler turned and saw a man materialize before him. His heart seized up as he saw the shimmering hand of the dark man. He did not even have time to scream as the assassin attacked.
Seconds later, the dark man stood over the smoldering remains of the second monster. He concentrated and caused the arcane talon to vanish.
"So they're going to Pieraccinni's," he said. "I'll pick up their trail there."
With a rustic of cloth, the dark man removed two gold pieces and dropped them beside the dead man's hand. "The first one is for the information," he said. "The second is to pay your passage into hell, you miserable excuse for a nightmare."
The man stepped back and vanished into the storm's fury.
The Harpers had avoided the main road and pitched their tent when the storm made it too dangerous to continue. Inside the tent, as the heavy rains of late afternoon fell, Lucius elected to keep watch near the partially opened flap. He declined the meal the others devoured with their usual lack of decorum. Myrmeen was too exhausted and famished to do anything but join them. Stones were laid in the middle of their enclosure, and a small fire blazed there. Burke had unwrapped and skillfully prepared several slabs of meat, most of which had been snapped up by the dark-haired, fourteen-year-old girl whom they had rescued.
"So," Burke said, determined to slap Krystin's hand away if she grabbed at another serving before he could distribute the meat to the others, "is anyone else hungry?"
"You mean she actually left something for the rest of us?" Reisz said as he spat out the seeds from a mouthful of grapes. Ord had consumed an entire loaf of bread and was eyeing the blackened slabs of meat with lustful intent. Myrmeen had gnawed three apples to their core.
"Come now, the girl has been through an ordeal," Varina gently coaxed, her stomach rumbling almost loud enough to be confused with the rolling thunder outside.
Reisz growled, "How are you, girl?"
"Fine," Krystin said, the word delivered hard and fast, like a blow.
"You feel well?"
"Fine," she repeated sharply. Her tone became demanding as she said, "Who are you people?"
"We told you, we're Harpers," Varina said gently.
"That's right," Reisz hissed. "No matter what you may think, we are not rival slavers. We are the lord protectors of the Realms."
Krystin nodded. "So you just run around doing good deeds. You help people and don't expect anyone to pay you."
"Well," Varina said, "essentially. But we have lives away from our duties as Harpers."
Krystin bit off another chunk of meat. As she chewed, she said, "You people are either the worst liars I've ever met or the biggest fools."
Ord raised his hands and smiled. "Well, at least she's grateful we saved her life," he quipped.
"You saved it," she admitted, "but for what?"
Reisz unconsciously glanced at Myrmeen. She had been staring at the child and was alarmed to discover that she had absolutely nothing to say to her. They had decided on the long ride into the desert that, at least for a time, they would not disclose Myrmeen's last name or her position as ruler of Arabel. To Krystin, Myrmeen would be simply another of the Harpers who had rescued her.
"What?" Krystin said nastily. "The dullard has something to tell me?"
"Stop calling me that," Myrmeen said, her anger simmering within her heart.
"I'm just surprised you understand the meaning of the word," Krystin said with a shrug. "You do, don't you?"
Myrmeen fought back the urge to strike the child. She had been resisting that impulse for hours. "Where were you educated? It wasn't just on the streets."
"What makes you think I'm educated?" Krystin said. "I know I must seem that way to you, slow-wits-"
Reisz suddenly reached over and grabbed the girl's wrist as he roared, "That's enough!"
Krystin fell silent, a catlike grin on her face. She looked down at his meaty hand on her pale, thin wrist and shamed him into releasing her without saying a word.
"There are limits to our patience," Burke said. "It's best not to test them."
"I'll consider myself warned," Krystin said, her smile deepening. She had learned when she was very young that those who ultimately revealed themselves to be the most threatening often approached wearing benevolent faces. By provoking these people, she had hoped to force them to reveal their true agenda.
Nevertheless, she was troubled. Normally she assumed the worst and did not bother to wait around to be proven incorrect. For some reason, she actually wanted to trust these people, and trust was an almost impossible commodity for the streetwise teenager after the brutalities of her early life. She decided that when she had a chance, she would steal one of their horses and escape.
"Why are you like this?" Myrmeen asked. "We're just trying to help you."
Krystin shrugged and tore another chunk of meat from the bone she had been nursing as Burke distributed the remaining meat among the Harpers. She said nothing as she slowly lowered the picked-clean bone to her lap and stared at the slab of meat that Varina was about to bite into. The child's eyes widened and her shoulders slumped. She pressed her lips together and allowed the tip of her tongue to flicker out of the corner of her mouth, just for an instant. Varina slowly lowered the meat and held it out to the child.
"Don't give her that!" Burke snarled.
Krystin sat back and laughed. "I'm not hungry anyway. But thank you for the offer. You're a dear."
Varina screwed up her features in disapproval, then took a healthy bite of the meat.
"You people are so easy," Krystin said. "It takes almost no effort to get to any of you. You're all a bunch of raw nerves waiting to be irritated. You're so full of yourselves I could almost believe you are-what name did you use? Harpies? Hel-pies? Heifers?"
"Harpers," Myrmeen said coolly.
"That's right," Krystin said. "Thank you."
Ord had been staring at her as if he she belonged to a different species, one that he was unable to identify, at least until now. Suddenly it came to him: "I think you just want attention."
The girl's smile dropped and her eyes became hard as she returned his stare.
"You're not subtle, you know. I played that game when I was your age. But I was better at it. You're sitting there fishing with a meat hook, thinking nobody's going to notice."
"Fenghis-slal" she said, backing up her foreign curse with a hand motion in case he did not understand the words.
"You're the one who is so easy," he said wryly.
Krystin froze. The others glanced at one another and smiled. Burke slapped Ord on the back and led his comrades in a tension-breaking round of laughter. The girl drew her knees up and stared at the crackling fire's orange glow.
"Dullards," she said, but her heart clearly was not to the insult. Her gaze drifted to the open flap at the tent's entrance, where Lucius Cardoc sat, looking out at the storm. The heavy droplets of rain pelted the hard leathers with the force of meteors that had slashed across the blackened afternoon sky and exploded against the enclosure. The relentless pounding made her wonder if it had become a hailstorm. The sound reminded her of the constant drumming of insistent, curious fingers. Water cascaded down the sides of the tent, dripping to the large puddles where the companions had cut ditches. The sound of running water was making her insane. All she wanted to know was how long the storm would keep up.