'You did well, Krystin. I am proud of you and I will no longer doubt your abilities in a fight. Can you hear me?'
The girl nodded.
'Have you nothing to say?' Reisz added.
'Thank you,' Krystin said absently. Her attention clearly was focused on the locket, her brow furrowed and covered in sweat. In frustration, Krystin allowed the locket to fall to her chest as she looked down at the gash in her arm. She felt nothing at all. Her body and mind were completely numb.
The rickety steps leading up from the cellar creaked several times, and the door opened. Shandower emerged and said it was Krystin's turn. Myrmeen had planned to go with her, but Krystin politely asked her to remain behind. She went through the doorway alone and descended to the cluttered cellar. The basement had become a dumping ground for old furniture, journals that had become damp and yellowed with age, toys that children born to loving and affluent parents would possess, and crates stuffed to bursting with old clothing, pots and pans, and more. A tarnished suit of armor rested in the corner, propped against the wall. A doorway that at first had not looked like an entrance was open, and orange light stretched out like a welcoming hand.
Krystin entered the small room. She saw a table with a white sheet thrown over it and several cabinets that were filled with herbs, vials of colored liquids, trays, and knives of every size and shape. The old physician-his name had not been given-stood with his back turned to Krystin. He was hunched over something on the small counter that had captured his attention. Krystin began to feel frightened as she recognized the distinctive smell of blood in the room.
The doctor turned, and Krystin felt her heart shrivel. His face was not human. Her thoughts slipped back to the night Alden first revealed himself to the Harpers and gained their trust. Alden had seen this man in Pieraccinni's chamber and had described him vividly. Krystin found him even more disturbing in real life. His face contained three sets of eyes, one set above and below the normal set. Lord Sixx reached up and tore off the long white smock he had been wearing. It was splattered with blood that she had thought belonged to Shan-dower and now realized had belonged to another. Before she could scream, a figure leapt from the shadows behind her and placed his cold hand over her mouth.
'I'm sorry,' Alden whispered.
Lord Sixx advanced and clamped his powerful hands on her shoulders. Alden withdrew as Sixx forced her back to the table, where he lifted her up and slammed her down with enough force to knock the air from her lungs. As Krystin tried to regain her breath, Alden secured her to the table with straps that had dangled over the sides. When she had been safely bound, Lord Sixx placed his hand over her mouth and ripped the locket from around her neck. The chain snapped, leaving a light welt on her throat. Krystin struggled to bite the flesh of his palm. As she tried to move her head from side to side, Krystin saw the healer's body in the corner of the small chamber, which was lighted by a pair of oil-burning lanterns. The man had been butchered. She tried to cry out, but her screams were muffled against his hand.
'You know who I am,' Sixx said with a gentleness that surprised Krystin. Realizing that she could not break free, she ceased her struggles, hoping that she could lull Sixx into removing his hand long enough for her to attract help.
Dangling the emerald locket before her face, Lord Sixx whispered, 'This bauble had special significance to you. It would be a shame to see it destroyed.'
With a flick of his wrist, Lord Sixx slapped the locket into his palm and began to squeeze. Krystin's eyes grew wide with terror as she saw the locket begin to flatten. A look of absolute sadness crept into Lord Sixx's face. 'I don't want to torment you. I don't want to give you pain. But I must be certain that you will at least hear me out.'
Krystin's gaze was fixed on the locket. Lord Sixx allowed it to fall from his iron grip. It dangled once again by the chain. For a moment she became aware of the green of his primary set of eyes, the exact color of the emerald locket.
'I can make your nightmares vanish. I can give you the sweetest dreams of your life and make the visions that haunt you go away forever. But all this comes at a price.' He frowned. 'It is not a terrible price. I am willing to forgive the crimes you have committed against our people. Further, I will reward you by giving you that which you desire most. For you to trust me, however, you must be made to see that you have misjudged our people.'
She could smell the corpse in the corner of the room.
'Humans hunt us because we are different. We are beyond their understanding. Without the apparatus, they cannot harm us. All we want is to be left alone. You can help us. In return, there is much I can give you. I know the secrets of your past. I have been inside your dreams. I will share all with you, even the significance of the locket, if you cooperate.'
Krystin stared at the Night Parade's leader, a part of her so entrenched in her own needs and desires that it forced her to actually consider his offer. If she did not learn the truth and dispel the nightmarish visions that disturbed her waking hours, she would go insane. She was certain of this.
'I'm going to take my hand away from your mouth. If you scream, I will be forced to kill you and your sacrifice will be for nothing. There are more than a hundred of our kind gathered near this place. Twice that number will arrive before your friends can fight their way to safety. If you do not cooperate, they all will die. Nod if you understand.'
Krystin shook her head and Lord Sixx removed his hand. She looked across at Alden, and said, 'We trusted you.'
The straw-haired young man turned away.
'Poor Alden,' Lord Sixx said softly. 'He never knew that the blood in his veins was not human. The boy is a hunter. He has senses that a wolf would envy. It was the gift of his mother, who is long dead. And he moves with the speed of the wind, the gift of his father, Dymas, who has been summoned from exile to rear him at last. Pieraccinni fancied himself the boy's father, but he could never bring himself to tell Alden the truth.' Lord Sixx shrugged. 'I think Pieraccinni enjoyed the company of humans far too-'
'What do you want of me?' Krystin said sharply.
'To the point. I like that. We'll work well together.'
'I'll help you, but only if it will save the others.'
'Oh,' Lord Sixx said happily. 'Very well. Then you don't want the rewards I have to bestow upon you.' He dropped the locket on her chest. 'You don't need to know where you came from, if Myrmeen Lhal is your mother or not.'
Krystin hesitated. Slowly, like a stone wall with a hairline crack becoming wider until it shatters from immense pressure, her brave facade fell away and she began to cry.
In a tiny voice she asked, 'What do you want from me?'
Lord Sixx turned her wounded arm until the gash faced outward. He motioned for Alden to come quickly. With a shamed expression, Alden crouched before the table and opened his mouth as Lord Sixx squeezed Krystin's arm until a few drops of her blood fell to Alden's flickering tongue.
Alden fell to his knees, covering his face. 'I have her scent,' he said. 'I will not lose it.'
'Very good,' Lord Sixx said. 'Return to the shadows. I taught you how. Do it.'
Krystin watched as Alden retreated to the room's shadow-laden corner. His body appeared to become a silhouette, then he merged with the darkness and was gone.
Lord Sixx bent over her and gently caressed her hair. His breath stank. Removing his glove, he exposed to the pale yellow light three sets of eyes lining his forearm. They blinked repeatedly, then slowly opened their lids all the way as they adjusted to the luminescence. The different sets of eyes looked out in varying directions. Then he spoke:
'I will mend your wound, just as if the healer had done it himself. Tell Shandower that the old man ordered the lot of you to be gone. He will believe the words came from the ill-tempered man and will depart gladly. From time to time, wherever he takes you, reopen your wound and allow a drop or two of blood to fall. That is all you must do.'
'You'll Mow us.'
'Safely, at a distance. There will be no further need for confrontation. When we get to where the apparatus is kept, we will take it and go.'
'Shandower,' she said, slurring the word as she began to feel drowsy. Sixx's many eyes were mesmerizing
