Yes, I remembered I had silenced her. That's why it was less of a question and more of an irresitible compulsion to tell me the truth.

"I'm . . . not telling you," she gasped.

I said irresistible . . . not immediate.

"You will in time," I promised her, "but that might be time none of us can afford. The only reason I've spent as much time on you as I have is because I thought I was keeping you busy so you couldn't kill us all."

Liar.

Trust a demon to point out a truth, so long as it's an inconvenient one, but I didn't have time for games . . . with it or with the girl.

"Last chance to do this the easy way," I warned.

She grimaced as she continued to fight the compulsion, then told me just enough to give me more information while still denying me what I needed to know. "She's . . . my sister," she hissed. "Do . . . your . . . worst!"

She was tough alright, but I thought I saw I way out of this. "Listen to me very carefully," I said softly as I positioned my face close to hers. "Look me in the eye, take a deep breath, then reconsider what you just said. I'm NOT lying about any of this!"

She was tough, but so was I . . . and I had truth on my side, not to mention a healthy serving of desperation, and I was betting she could sense that if I let her.

I was right.

Her eyes dropped. "She's out in the woods," she whispered, "but she's not doing anything like what you think she's doing. She's just teaching a class in the songs of nature!"

The way she said that, it sounded like the truth, but I knew it couldn't be. "You don't rattle these kind of doors with bird calls," I told her with a disbelieving sneer.

"Well that's all she's teaching!" she haughtily assured me. "Well . . . that and a few whale songs."

And with that one little amendment, she made it clear to me just how little either of us knew what was going on.

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