Zhara crept into her brother’s room and gently shook him awake. "Zelgadis is on his way out of town," she told him when he swatted her hand off of his shoulder.
        "Hm?" Then the information sunk in, and Urlich was suddenly very much awake. "And you just let him go?!" He hissed.
        Zhara shrugged. "You can easily catch up to him in the morning if you want to get a good night’s sleep first. I just wanted to you know he was gone."
        Url sat up and willed the candles in his room to ignite. "Why wait till morning? Zhara, I’m being paid to watch him!"
        Another shrug. "That’s why I’m telling you now: So you can either get dressed and go after him, or go back to sleep. Just don’t bring him back here, Url," she added with an intense glare. "I sense an urgency to his quest. I don’t think he can take any more delays. If you decide to go after him now, don’t ask him to turn around and come back."
        Urlich nodded, then with a heavy sigh, threw off the covers and slid out of bed. "I hate him…" he muttered as he went to the wardrobe and threw a set of clothes onto the bed. "If I wait till morning I won’t get paid." He turned and pointed at his sister, who bit back a smirk. "He’ll tell Phileonel, I know he will. Zel hates me." As he pulled on his pants he added: "The feeling’s mutual, of course. Have you told anybody else?"
        Zhara shook her head. "The plan was for you, Sylph and Lar—er, Lita to go with him. If I tell Lina, she’ll go after Zel instead of going to talk to her sister."
        Urlich paused in the middle tucking in his shirt to give her a serious look. "I hope you’re prepared to deal with her wrath if you wait till morning…"
        Zhara snorted: "I’m sure I’ll manage."
        "Your funeral," Url muttered, then added: "Get Sylph and Lita ready to go—just Sylph if you don’t think you can wake up Lita without Lina or anybody else hearing you."
        "That’s why the gods made sleep spells, Brother," Zhara joked, and left him to finish pulling his look together.

        "Antsy bugger, isn’t he?" Beast Master commented to her minion, as she and Xellos stood on a rooftop and watched Zelgadis leave Marrigan.
        Xellos smirked. "If I recall the plan correctly, he should be headed for the battle ground of Seified and Shabranigdo. Hopefully, he has deduced that taking more public routes will enable him to feed his new nature as needed. He will also likely have deduced that there are at least four people who can catch up to him anytime they like: You, me, Urlich and Jessica. Therefore, he shouldn’t be too surprised to see me!"
        "It’s just a question of when to appear," Beast Master cut in with a wicked smile.
        "I think I’ll let him put some ground between himself and Marrigan first," Xel said thoughtfully. "Zhara’s sure to know he’s gone. The fact that Lina Inverse hasn’t come charging down the street, nor has Urlich or Jessica appeared, indicates Zhara hasn’t told anyone yet."
        "Curious," Zellas mused. "I’d think she’d tell Lina, at least."
        Xellos shook his head. "No, Lina would force him to return, rather than simply carrying on the journey with him. I don’t think Zelgadis wants to be slowed down."
        "I can’t imagine why," Beast Master snorted. "It’s not as if his cure is going anywhere."
        "He’s impatient by nature, My Lady," Xellos told her. "Though I sense a need for haste, myself, particularly after discovering that bit of Garv in Lara Sorez. Most worrisome…"
           "Indeed," Zellas agreed, exhaling a long trail of cigarette smoke through her nose. "I find it rather troubling that we didn’t feel it before she cast a spell."
        Xellos nodded. "So do I. It must be very small to be able to hide from us. I wonder if the Lita personality can access it, as well?"
        "Get her to cast a spell," his master replied coolly. "That’s when the piece revealed itself before."
        Another nod. "I should do that as soon as possible, I think. This is important. If Garv remains in the world in any way, it could mean trouble later."
        "Much later," Zellas shrugged. "But only if his host survives, and the piece isn’t prevented from finding a new one when Sorez dies. I can’t believe Phibrizo of all people missed a piece. He was always so thorough."
        That bothered Xellos very much. Phibrizo had been the most powerful of Shabranigdo’s minions before his demise at the hands of the Lord of Nightmares. The idea of him botching the job and allowing a part of Garv to survive was almost unthinkable. And, yet, it had happened. He hoped the Lord of Nightmares had been more attentive to the little details when she’d destroyed Hellmaster. If there was a bit of Phibrizo floating about, they were really in trouble.

        The Lord of Nightmares watched Zelgadis leave Marrigan with a little smile on her face. About bloody time and all, she thought, and applauded Zhara for waiting to tell Lina Inverse of his departure. Urlich wouldn’t stop him, at least, though that Sorez woman might slow things down, especially if Phibrizo’s former minion persisted in trying to kill her while she was Lita. If the woman wasn’t carrying an errant piece of Garv in her, the Lord of Nightmares might actually find her constant personality shifts funny, if only because of the effect they had on her companions.
        She blew smoke, and it curled about her giant crystal ball like fog over a boulder. When it cleared, the scene was Zhara’s parlor, and Urlich with his arms around a frightened-looking Lita Sorez. In an instant, they were gone. Zhara remained behind, staring at the place where they’d stood with a troubled look on her face.
        The Lord of Nightmares switched back to Zelgadis and was surprised that Urlich and Lita didn’t immediately appear. Nor did they appear after she watched Zel for a few more minutes. Hm. She searched the surrounding countryside, trying to remember what towns or villages might be nearby, other than Marrigan. The nearest stopping point, if Zelgadis chose to keep to the main road, as he seemed to be inclined to do, was Seaward, which lay (obviously enough) seaward from Marrigan, and was one of the larger port cities outside of Seyruun. From there, Zel could take ship south to the region in which the ancient battleground lay. His other choice was to go the whole route by land, which wasn’t a bad idea in the Lord of Nightmares’ opinion. Certainly less chancy than going by sea in storm season. Either way, Seaward was a good place to stop for supplies, which she decided must be Zel’s plan, and was probably where he’d find Urlich and Lita waiting for him.
        She concentrated on Urlich and found him and Lita right where she’d guessed they’d be: Seaward, just entering the first inn that greeted travelers coming in off the main road. The Galloping Seahorse also offered a general store, toward which Urlich and Lita made a beeline once inside the inn.

        "What if he doesn’t come here?" Lita asked Urlich worriedly through a yawn.
        "If he wants to feed his need, he’ll have to keep to the main roads," Urlich told her, then changed the subject. "Do you have any money?"
        She patted her blouse between her breasts and replied quietly, with an eye to the few other people in the store at such an hour: "I have enough for my own clothing and other supplies."
        That was one less worry on Urlich’s mind. He preferred a woman who could fend for herself and suspected Zelgadis did, too, judging by the other company he kept. "Good. That’ll make things easier. We don’t need to buy too much, so save your money. I think he’ll stick to more heavily-traveled routes, so we should be able to stop at inns or taverns for food and sleep."
        Lita nodded. "That sounds a lot better than sleeping on the ground. I’m pretty tired of that."
        "And your friend will be less likely to attack you in a public place," Urlich added quietly. "Let’s just get a few essentials, then get some coffee and wait for Stone Boy to show up."
        "I just want different clothes," Lita told him in a hard voice.
        Urlich looked at her through narrowed eyes for a few moments, then shrugged. "Go on, then. I’ll be over here in the—what are you doing?"
        She was clinging to his arm, was what she was doing. "Please don’t leave me alone," she pleaded in a trembling voice.
        On an ordinary night, Url would’ve relished the idea of a pretty girl hanging on his arm. However, this pretty girl was actually two pretty girls with a piece of a deceased Dark Lord in them and a monster-assassin following them about. Not the kind of girl Url would usually single out for flirtation. "I’m sure you’ll be fine," he tried to reassure her, but Lita just hung on tighter and looked at him with enormous, frightened, green eyes that threatened to brim over with tears. Urlich cursed his weakness for weeping females and resigned himself to shopping with her hanging off of him. He was just glad Sylph wasn’t around to see it. Not that she’d have gotten jealous, she just would’ve teased him about it for the next…oh, decade or so. Speaking of his former lover, he wondered how she was faring with Zelgadis.

        "Dammit! I want to do this alone, Sylph!" Zelgadis growled and stomped his foot in consternation. "Where’s Urlich?"
        "I thought you wanted to do this alone?" Sylph purred and ran a flirty finger down his cheek.
        Zelgadis sputtered and turned red. "I—I just thought he’d be with you, that’s all."
        "He’s waiting for us with Lita in Seaward—"
        "SHIT!" Zel stomped his foot again and brushed the kitsune’s hand away. "I can’t believe you’re doing this to me! You guys will just slow me down—no, you won’t slow me down, and neither will Urlich. That Sorez woman will do it! Why couldn’t he have left her at Zhara’s!"
        "I thought you wanted to keep an eye on her, Zelly Belly," Sylph shot back. Her voice was teasing, but her eyes were hard as emeralds and sparkled in the moonlight.
        Zelgadis saw the impatient gleam in her eyes and swallowed hard. "I don’t trust Lara. I don’t know about Lita. When I knew her in Seyruun, she was this mousy little git who couldn’t be a threat to spider."
        "So she’ll scare easily," Sylph drawled, "giving you a nice little snack anytime you need one. Right?"
        He hated it when she was right. She was always so smug about it and gave him that superior little smirk, her sharp, little fangs peeking out over her lower lip. No wonder Urlich was nuts over her. Those see-through gowns of hers were a nice touch, too.
        She thumped him on the head and reiterated her question more firmly: "RIGHT?"
        "What? Oh, yeah, yeah," Zel agreed, tearing his eyes from her long legs, "right. Wait a minute…" He did a mental check of his state of mind, then turned a low growl on his companion: "You cast a spell on me, didn’t you?!"
        She blinked innocently. "A spell? On you? Now why would I—"
        "It’s one of those damn kitsune love spells, isn’t it?!"
        Sylph grinned, showing all of her pointy teeth and batted her eyes. "You accuse me? Zelgadis, I’m hurt!"
        He glared.
        She batted her eyes some more.
        "Sylph, I can feel the magic," he growled, "you’re not fooling me!"
        Sylph huffed and petulantly tossed her head.
        Zelgadis sighed, then with a wicked grin, alighted upon a new tactic to make her fess up. "Like you need a love spell to make a guy want you…"
        That had the desired effect of making her crumble. Torn between flattery and suspicion, Sylph finally gave up and confessed. "Oh, alright, I put a spell on you so you wouldn’t try to run away, ok?"
        "Stupid furball."
        "Boulder brains."
        Zelgadis sighed and shook his head. "I’m stuck with you people, aren’t I?"
        Sylph nodded with an evil grin.
        "Fine," Zel snarled, "then I guess we shouldn’t keep Urlich waiting."
        "He’ll be impossible if we do," Sylph agreed with a giggle and hooked her arm in Zel’s. "Sorry about the spell."
        "Just don’t let it happen again," he retorted as he fought back a smirk.
        After a while, she asked coyly: "Did you really mean that about me not needing a spell to make a guy want me?"
        Zelgadis shrugged. "Sure. Just ask Urlich."
        "I meant you, you moron," she thought but left it unsaid.

Chapter 22