She nearly dropped her tin cup filled with fresh water as she saw a flash of lightning in the distance. The heavy clap of thunder made her jump. Varina instinctively reached out to put her hand on the girl's arm in a comforting gesture, then stopped herself, remembering the way Krystin had swatted her hand away the last time.
Myrmeen moved closer and sat down beside Krystin. "I hate the storms, too. I have a lot of terrible memories tied to storms like this one."
"I suppose you're going to tell me all about it," Krystin said nastily, resisting Myrmeen's attempts to distract her from the storm.
"No," Myrmeen said. "I'd rather talk about you. I'd like to know why you're afraid of storms."
Thunder rolled, somewhere close. Myrmeen tensed. So did Krystin. "Why should you care? You're not my mother."
Myrmeen flinched. She closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. "Who are your parents, then?"
Krystin appeared to shrink into herself. She set the cup down and hugged herself. Myrmeen tried to get the child to look in her direction, but Krystin shook her head. Despite the way it frightened her, she would not take her gaze from the storm. "I don't know," she said in a small voice.
"Who raised you, then?" Myrmeen asked.
She swallowed hard, shuddered. "Monsters." Suddenly, Krystin came to life. Expectantly, she asked, "Are you people with them?"
"Who?" Burke said. "The monsters?"
"No," Krystin replied, shaking her head as if she were being ridiculed and no longer cared. She bit her lip and said, "The demon killers. The hunters who are killing off the Night Parade's monsters."
Ord grinned. "We killed four of them last week."
Krystin sank to her knees and planted her hands on her thighs in awe. "Four? That many. At one time?"
"Yes," Burke said, getting some idea of Ord's destination. The younger man was trying to find a way to make Krystin show them some respect. With a smug laugh, Burke placed his hand on his wife's back and said, "I expect we'll be up for a few more before we leave Calimport."
A shudder passed through Krystin. Her expression changed to one of sheer panic. Without warning, she scrambled to her feet and bolted to the partially open tent flap. Lucius turned and grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her from behind, pinning her arms at her sides. She began to scream and wail incoherently, shouting phrases in a language that no one understood.
Myrmeen went to her. "Krystin, what's wrong? We're not going to hurt you."
Krystin kicked at the mage's legs, then leaned down and bit the fleshy part of his arm. He winced at the pain but did not let her go.
"Stop that," Myrmeen said. "Lucius is your friend. We all are."
"Let me go!" she screamed. "You didn't say we were going back there! That's where they live. That's where they hide. That where they do things to you!"
"Krystin, we have to go back to Calimport. There is a man who has to be paid for his services. Once that's done," she said, looking back at the Harpers, "then we'll leave."
Reisz nodded, closing his eyes then opening them slowly.
"I'm sorry." Krystin started weeping. "You're not stupid. I'm sorry I said that. Just don't take me back there."
Ord laughed. "It's just an act. Look at her, she's-"
"She's terrified, Ord," Myrmeen said, the yellow slivers in her rich blue eyes appearing to burn with the flames of her anger. Ord looked away.
Krystin's body relaxed as she watched Myrmeen. She turned her face in Cardoc's direction. "I won't try to run. You can let me go."
Sensing the truth in her tone, Lucius released her.
She turned to him and said, "I'm sorry about your arm."
"It will heal," he said, "unlike some wounds you cannot see that sometimes take a lifetime to heal."
Myrmeen nodded. He had been looking at her as he spoke. She placed her hand on Krystin's shoulder. The girl did not try to force it away. "What did they do to you? What did those monsters make you do?"
"I'd find people for them," she said, lowering her head in shame. Myrmeen guided Krystin back to the circle, and they sat with the others. She kept her arm around the girl, and the shivering fourteen-year-old did not protest.
"Those creatures don't need humans to do their work for them," Reisz said. "We've seen them. They can pass for human at any time."
"Some of them can," Krystin said darkly. "Not all."
"So you found people for them," Myrmeen said. "Then what happened?"
"Don't you know?"
Myrmeen shook her head.
"You don't know what the Night Parade monsters do to their prey? How they survive? What they live on?"
The Harpers were silent.
"Really?" she asked in stunned disbelief. "But you wish to make war on them. You slaughter them without understanding the reasons for what they do."
"It sounds as if you're defending them," Ord said as he saw their dinner fire slowly die.
"No," she said. "No, kill them. Kill them all, if you can. I just don't think you know what you're dealing with."
"So tell us," Myrmeen said.
"You're not the hunters," she said. "You're not the ones that have been seeking them out and killing them for the past two years."
Ord raised an eyebrow. "Why do you say-"
"Enough," Burke said. "No. We are not the ones. We only arrived in Calimport a short time ago."
Krystin buried her face in her hands and drew a sharp breath. She laughed a hollow laugh and shook her head in amazement. "How many of you are there? What's the size of your army?"
"Why would you ask us that?" Myrmeen said.
"Because I only see six of you in this tent," Krystin said slowly. "And I can guarantee there are over six thousand of the monsters in Calimport alone…"
Outside, the rain began to level off. The storm rolled on, moving deeper into the desert. A sharp crack of lightning sounded in the distance.
Within the tent, Burke stoked the fire. He felt comforted by the warmth and watched the reddish orange glow of the flames as he quietly said, "Tell us everything."
Krystin nodded and began to speak. Myrmeen listened to her daughter's words with mounting fear. She gained an education into the nature of an evil that astonished even her jaded sensibilities, and the thunder that eventually followed sounded like a promise that the storm soon would return.
Eight
"That is all I can give you," Myrmeen said.
Pieraccinni sat behind his desk, regarding the pile of coins and jewels before him with an amused expression. "I know I said a small token of faith would suffice, but I didn't expect it to be this small."
"You'll get all that's coming to you," Myrmeen said stiffly as she stood before the merchant. "Or do you not trust the word of Myrmeen Lhal, ruler of Arabel?"
Pieraccinni's gaze slowly rose from the riches on his desk to the piercing stare of the magnificent brunette. Her unusual blue-and-gold eyes were hard and unyielding.
"Why do I get the feeling you told Dak something very similar before you lopped his head off?" he asked.