The Night Parade Read Free Page A

I’m gone.” Myrmeen turned to the dark-haired woman beside her. “Elyn, I need you to pretend to be me for a time.”
    Elyn shuddered. “Myrmeen, I’m a warrior. I’m not meant to sit on a throne and pass judgments. Besides, no one would believe that I was you without—”
    “Magic,” Myrmeen said as she withdrew an amulet from her pouch and laid it on the table. “An old acquaintance of mine forged this trinket and cast a spell upon it that still works. Whoever wears this amulet will assume my image. We had needed some time alone and so one of my serving maids assisted me in the deception.”
    “Let me see that,” the young Harper said as he reached across the table, snatched the amulet, and pulled it tight around his neck. There was a tiny snap as he fixed the clasp behind his neck and suddenly there were two Myrmeen Lhals sitting at the table. Only their style of dress distinguished them from one another. The boy looked down at his hands, then clawed at the amulet until he was able to release the clasp, the illusion suddenly dispelled. Hands shaking, he dropped the amulet in front of Myrmeen as the others laughed.
    “Myrmeen, why me?” Elyn said.
    “Because I need someone who would rule as I would; someone who would appreciate the responsibility and maintain Arabel in the manner in which I will instruct them.”
    “What about the rest of us?” Burke said.
    “I need only Elyn. I don’t need anyone else.”
    “Of course you do,” Varina countered. “Why else would you have summoned all of us?”
    Myrmeen hesitated. She did not have an answer.
    “I’ll do it,” Elyn said, “on one condition: that the others go with you to Calimport. If the Night Parade is real, then it is the Harpers’ duty, as lord protectors of the Realms, to destroy it.”
    “I don’t know,” Myrmeen said.
    “You’d better decide soon,” Elyn said, smiling. “The offer is only good for a short time.”
    “She’s right,” Reisz said. “You are too valuable to Cormyr to risk in the foul pit of Calimport. You must let us accompany you.”
    Ord sat back, crossing his arms. “She doesn’t want our help. That much is clear. Why should we risk our lives—”
    “Because she’s one of us,” Elyn said sharply. “When you join the Harpers, you become one for life.”
    “But I never officially joined you,” Myrmeen said.
    “A technicality,” Burke said as he offered his hand to Myrmeen. She took it and nodded in agreement.
    “An error that perhaps we will see righted before this business is done,” Reisz said as he finally raised his tankard and drained the contents.
    From somewhere close, Myrmeen thought she heard the low rumble of thunder. She dismissed the thought and settled back to spend the evening with her only true friends.
     

Two
     
    The group arrived in Calimport a few weeks later, before sunrise. At Myrmeen’s insistence they spent their time stashing caches of gold, false papers, and weapons throughout the city. They made a full circle of the port city and saw opulent mansions sitting side-by-side with shantytowns. Traveling down a street at random sometimes led them to fantastic outdoor markets where the finest jewelry and clothing could be found, along with the most succulent of foods. That same journey just as often led them to scenes of abject horror, such as children with bellies bloated from starvation fighting their parents for the disease-ridden rats they had captured in the gutters, or street people openly relieving themselves before the disguised Harpers.
    The group’s youngest member, Ord, was especially disgusted when a young man tried to sell himself, his sister, his mother, or anyone the warrior might desire, for the night’s comfort. The boy preferred life in the wilderness to the casual degradations he and his companions frequently encountered in the city.
    Close to nightfall, they returned to the inn that first had caught their attention when they had passed through the city’s gates.