The Night Parade

"Where-where are they?" Ord stammered, looking back to the building, which already belched clouds of black smoke.

"They loved you very much," Myrmeen said. Then she struck him in the solar plexus, just beneath the rib cage, with the stiffened fingers of her right hand. He collapsed in a heap, and Reisz loaded him onto his mount, securing him quickly as he eyed the burning building, expecting a new host of monstrosities to erupt at any time. Shandower took the first of two mounts that had been left behind by the deaths of Myrmeen's friends, and said, "I know a place."

"Show us," Myrmeen said.

The Harpers rode out, Myrmeen taking one last look at the remains of her childhood quarters before she quietly followed the others to safety.

Nine

Alden McGregor had not anticipated a journey of discovery when he first began to shadow the Lhal woman and her companions. Their detour to the Knight's Kitchen for a last meal in the city before their long journey had not seemed out of line. Even the stopover at the Tower Arms had appeared i

"You know," the voice said enigmatically, "don't you?"

Alden never thought much about his dreams, but after witnessing the battle at the Tower Arms, he had begun to wonder if demons could escape the dream world.

The blond teenager had followed Lhal and her people from the burning building. They had ridden for close to an hour, snaking through forgotten paths in the city, until they came to a one-story stone edifice. The building once had been a sewing shop, where dozens of women had sweated out the day to weave cheap imitations of fine clothing. One day the authorities had learned of the shop and closed it down. The place also had been a warehouse for a time, until fire had destroyed the contents several times over. Currently it sat vacant, the locals claiming that it was accursed. Alden smiled. A little bad luck and any location would be proclaimed as such. His mentor, Pieracci

The long-haired man with the strange, arcane gauntlet had led Myrmeen and her companions through a side entrance to the building. Alden had sat in the darkening alley for a time, waiting for them to come out. When they did not, he decided it was time to return to the Gentleman's Hall and give a full report.

Before nightfall he was back on the docks, indulging himself at the expense of the many guards Pieracci

Alden weaved through the service hallways and tu

Alden froze. The voice was the one from his nightmares. A part of him wished to turn and run from the Gentleman's Hall, but another more curious and insistent voice within him urged the young man to carefully open the marble door a crack and peak inside.

He saw Pieracci

Alden wondered if the man had been born with so many eyes or if he had acquired them from his victims. His curiosity made him ponder what function each of the various sets of eyes performed.

He watched as the tall man reached for one of the strange, edged weapons at his waist and drew the blade slowly, the metal scraping its scabbard. Pieracci

Alden tried to imagine the damage such a weapon could perform if it were already inside a victim.

"You know, don't you?" the man repeated as he gestured with the knife. "What dreams may come? Dreams of darkness and death from which you may never wake, or prosperous dreams of wealth, power, and women of such great beauty and talent that you would never wish to wake. The latter is what I have given you. I could take it away in an instant."

"Please, Lord Sixx. I meant no disrespect."

"Pieracci

Lord Sixx waved the knife. From his hiding place Alden winced and felt a sudden wave of nausea as the scene before him suddenly changed. Pieracci

"I will tell you anything," Pieracci

"Of course you will. That is your duty and your compulsion to he who commands the Night Parade," Sixx said as he looked down and sighed. "Get off your knees. I'm tired of looking at your bald head."

The merchant of arms and men did as he was commanded.

"Tell me about the Lhal woman," Lord Sixx said.

"She has been dealt with. She will trouble us no further," Pieracci

"That's what you said the last time. Now four of our number have died and two more have disappeared."

"Zandler and Crolus have always been unreliable. I will ask Imperator Zeal to discipline them when they return."