Damien sent a note to his master, informing her that they couldn’t find Imogen and the others. With that done, the three of them left the crater and turned southwest. They stayed silent, each thinking their own thoughts. He needed to put the zombie attack behind them and focus on their mission. The mayor reported to a wealthy merchant in Port Valcane who went by the name Paymaster. The business in the mountains had only taken an hour and Damien wanted to capture him before word got out about the roundup of cult members.

The warehouse in Port Valcane hadn’t been mentioned in the ledger Jen decoded so the Paymaster must be part of another cell or, if they got really lucky, maybe one of the real leaders of the cult. If he was a leader and he had information about all the kingdom cells they could eliminate the cult, root and branch. It was also the only way they’d probably ever find Smyth and avenge their father.

Marie-Bell had transferred over to the platform to ride with Jen and Damien since she said she’d never flown for as long as it would take to reach the city and she didn’t want to run out of power halfway there. Given the strength of her divine soul force he doubted it would be an issue, but if she preferred to ride on his transport he didn’t mind.

“I’ve never been to Port Valcane,” Marie-Bell said, trying to make her voice light. “What’s it like?”

“Sprawling, smelly, crowded and noisy,” Jen said. “The only thing that stinks worse than the docks is the politics.”

Marie-Bell winced. “That bad, huh?”

“Worse actually. My words hardly do it justice. I can’t imagine a better place for the cult leaders to set up shop. There’s so much slime they blend right in.”

Marie-Bell looked at Damien. “Is there anything nice about it?”

“The ocean is very pretty at dawn and dusk.”

“Is that all?”

“I was only there for a couple days, but that’s all I saw. Sorry. And I doubt we’ll find anything better this visit.”

Marie-Bell hung her head. “In the three months I’ve been traveling the kingdom it seems I’ve found a lot more bad things than good. I thought I could make a big difference in people’s lives, but there’s so much going on, so many problems. Even if I spent forever wandering around, doing what I can, it wouldn’t amount to anything.”

“You can’t think that way.” Damien glanced at her then back to where he was flying. “You can’t focus on everything that’s wrong. You have to look at the individuals you help. Even if it’s one here and one there, you’ve still made their lives better. There will always be challenges, but the important thing is to keep moving forward, and don’t give up.”

He looked toward his sister and found Jen smiling at him. “What?”

She shook her head. “I never imagined you as a deep thinker. St. Clouds tend toward action.”

Damien laughed at that. “I’m no deep thinker, but after some of the stuff I’ve seen this past year I’ve had my moments of depression. Looking after one person at a time is what I thought up to fight it. Not exactly earth-shattering stuff, but it helps me on the bad days.”

Like when I have to annihilate a whole town.

Something pressed on his shoulder and out of the corner of his eye Damien saw blond hair. “Thank you,” Marie-Bell whispered in his ear.