Sophyra’s naked body was propped up against a tree, and Frank could see ropes securing her to it. Her head was canted at a strange angle, and blood covered her. A piece of paper was stuck to the tree above her head:THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO SLAVES THAT RUN“! Sophyra!” Frank covered the distance to her in a few steps, and he instantly saw that her throat had been cut so deeply that she was almost decapitated. He dropped to his knees and reached for her, but he did not know what to do. Finally, he carefully undid the ropes that held her to the tree with hands that shook violently, and then he sat on the ground and cradled her closely to himself. He started rocking back and forth as tears streamed down his face.“No, no, no, no, no,” he muttered, desperately clutching her to his chest. “Please, Yisu, not her, please, please, please.”He was still there, muttering to himself and rocking her in his arms, when Dinton and Tero came back. He heard them return, but he could not make himself ca

“And I am not a liar. What I tell you is the truth.” He frowned when he heard the sound of horseshoes on cobblestones, and his head slowly turned toward the main entrance of the town. Sure enough, Dinton and Tero guided their horses through the crowd that had formed around him and the old woman. Sophyra followed, but she stayed near the buildings away from him. Gasps filled the air as women finally recognized the men who had killed their husbands and sons.He turned back to Nikale, ignoring his friends. “Listen, I was told to come to you to help you with the women, children, and slaves left here, so here I am. What needs to be done?”The woman was about to answer when a small girl, maybe five or six years old, tugged on her skirts. Nikale bent down, and the girl whispered in her ear.“I think so, dear. Why?”The girl did not answer but instead stepped up to Frank. “Did you kill my baba?”Frank squatted down in front of her. “Probably.”“Are you going to kill me, too?”He frowned and l

“I do not know.”“Well, I see no difference. And as for you making a world-ending mistake, I do not see that happening. Besides, Yisu stepped in to correct this mistake. What makes you think He will not do it again?”“He will not,” Frank said. “I do not know how I know, but I do. The next stupid decision of mine could be fatal for a lot of people. Maybe for everyone.”Dinton stood up and pulled the Anmah up with him. “That may be so, but you cannot expect to never make another mistake. After all,” he said with a smile, “you are still just a child.”As Dinton had hoped, Frank smiled slightly. “I am. At least for an Anmah. And children do make mistakes every now and then. Rarely are they world-ending, though.”“Tell you what,” Dinton said with a grin. “If I think you are making that kind of mistake, I will smack you and tell you to shape up. Agreed?”Frank just nodded.Dinton stepped back and cocked his head toward the door. “Come on. Everyone is waiting for you.”“Who’s everyone?”“The

“Son of a goat!” he groaned as he looked down at his chest and saw the unmistakable point of an arrow sticking out of him. Whoever had shot it had been good, and had struck him cleanly through the heart. He felt the blood pumping out of the holes in him as he crumpled, his sword clattering on the cobblestones. “Find the horeson who shot me, Dinton,” he gasped. “Do not kill him, though. I want to—“ That was as far as he got before he pitched forward onto his face, dead.Dinton barely heard him, and he could not have followed his leader’s command even had he wanted to try. The position that the Daitya had forced his body into had dislocated both his shoulders, and he was groaning in pain on the ground. Tero had a broken leg from dropping to the ground from a height of two paces onto legs numbed from being tightly bound by nothing but air, but he managed to pull his bow from the pile of weapons and nock an arrow before forcing himself to stand, leaning heavily on Mathi who seemed to be c

“One like him, yes.”“Well, thank you. He was about to kill us when you showed up.”“He was going to do more than that. He was going to claim your souls for Sayatan.”Dinton and Tero both frowned even as Mathi and Nikale gasped.“How do you know that, Frank?” Tero asked.“Because I understood what he was saying. That seems to be another lovely ability of mine—being able to understand the language of evil.”Nikale looked as if she were going to say something, but instead, she pointed to an open door. “First meal is ready. Enjoy your spoils, Captain Mistri.”“What do you mean?”The old woman gestured around the room. “This was all Dahaka’s. Now it is yours as the one who defeated him.” She turned to walk out the front door but stopped with her hand on the handle. “And thank you, Captain. Dahaka was the worst of them all, and now I know why. Would you be amenable to talking later on?”“Of course, but right now I need to eat before I faint.”She smiled and left the house.“Come on, Tero,