“Calvin, I need you. I need you to focus now.”

  “He murdered them, Pelias.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “What other explanation is there?”

  “Think about Talkus and Tikray. What use would it be for Cambiador to murder his agents? He’d never achieve his purposes if he made a habit of that.”

  Calvin groaned. His head was starting to ache. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Exactly. So there must be something else going on.”

  “What, then?”

  “If I might make a suggestion, sir,” Bob said. “Perhaps Talkus required their services in the next realm.”

  Calvin glared. “There’s plenty of work for them here.”

  Pelias nodded. “Yes, but he knows we can handle it. You know there is much work to be done on the other side. We should rejoice that so many of our friends were deemed worthy to join Talkus in that work.”

  Calvin recoiled at the thought, but a part of him whispered that such thoughts would relieve his pain, both physically and emotionally. His stomach loosened, offering a taste of that relief. He grabbed at the hair at his temples and growled. No. I don’t want that relief. That would mean forgetting what Cambiador did. He killed my friends and covered it up by saying they’d retired. I can’t forgive him for that. He groaned as his stomach tightened again, but he defied it. “Cambiador lied to me. He said they’d retired. But they were dead.”

  “Sir,” Bob said, “they may have died weeks after their retirements.”

  “Not your cousins. He said he had a task for them. That was this morning.”

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  “Perhaps Talkus had urgent business for them, sir.”

  “He already has all my other crewmates!”

  “Calvin,” Pelias said, “we do not know what forces Talkus has in his realm, what he needs there, or what tasks he must perform. Perhaps Cambiador lied to you, but perhaps it was to keep you focused on your own work. He knew you would react like this if you found out.”

  “My work has been pointless.”

  “No, Calvin. Your work has been crucial. In the last month alone, disappearances and kidnappings have gone down by thirty percent region-wide. In Unichi territory, they’re down by a full ninety percent, and it’s already nearly eighty in Hark’akuy territory. Because of you, those vile cults have almost completely ceased operating.”

  “They’ll just start again,” Calvin grumbled.

  Pelias shook his head. “Our spies report a massive decrease in the Unichi population. They fought viciously amongst themselves as they tried to reestablish their hierarchy, and then the victor killed all of his rivals. Hark’akuy is still at war with itself as we speak. Calvin, you did that. You weakened the cults, and it won’t be long before Tikray rallies to wipe them out for good. We’ll free the land of these cults, and then no one will ever be sacrificed to a devil again.”

  The pain eased once more as Calvin considered that prospect. He remembered the cleric they’d saved from Waska. He remembered the prisoners they’d freed from Hark’akuy. Those people were still alive because of what Calvin had done in service to Tikray, and countless others would avoid those situations entirely for the same reason. Yes, Tikray does do some good. The pinching stopped, and his stomach eased and stilled back to normal. All that remained of the pain was a dull ache because of how long the torment had lasted.

  He took a deep breath, and even that eased the pain a bit. He pushed himself to his feet. “Thank you. Both of you. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

  “I think you would’ve pulled through eventually, sir.”

  Calvin chuckled. “Thanks, Bob. Now, Cambiador did tell me our next target. It’s Pintor of Rikchay. We leave for Rowan City tomorrow morning, and thanks to our work this week, we’ve already got our plan put together.”

  “It’s a good plan, sir.”

  “Yes, but it’ll be harder with just the three of us. We’ll need to recruit from the city again.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem,” Pelias said, “unless you have connections there from before Tikray.”

  A few hours before, Calvin would have taken offense to that. But after his breakdown, he appreciated Pelias’s caution. “I never spent much time there. Nothing to worry about.”

  “Excellent. I’ll pack up our gear.”