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The Night Parade, by Scott Ciencin, is the fourth book in the loosely connected The Harpers series.

For decades the ghastly Night Parade has haunted the sleep of many in the Realms, but most thought it was nothing more than figments born of troubled minds. They were wrong. Myrmeen Lhal, the seductive ruler of Arabel, becomes embroiled in a war against the Night Parade, a war in which the Harpers are her only allies. She must triumph against these creatures who live on fear and misery—for the monstrous band's leaders have the daughter she thought dead for fourteen years past.

Summary[]

Myrmeen Lhal, ruler of Arabel and former Harper, encounters her ex-husband Dak, who reveals that the daughter she thought was stillborn was actually sold to the Night Parade, legendary otherworldly monsters. Myrmeen kills Dak and reassembles the Harper group she once traveled with: Reisz, Burke, Varina, Elyn, and a junior member named Ord. She leaves Elyn in Arabel, posing as her, and travels to Calimport with the rest, meeting up with Lucius Cardoc, a Harper wizard. They are told by Pieraccini, a crime lord, that Myrmeen’s daughter is being held by slavers, and rescue a girl named Kyrstin, who believes she was raised by the Night Parade and hunted people for them. Later, Burke and Varina are killed in a battle with the Night Parade. They meet a man called Eryn Shandover, who has stolen the apparatus the Night Parade uses to steal children and make more of themselves, and fashioned a gauntlet that kills them with a touch. The group make war against the Night Parade, but Pieraccini and his ward, a boy named Alden McGregor who had informed on the Night Parade, prove to both be members themselves. The Night Parade ambush the group and kill Lucius. Later, Lord Sixx, the leader of the Parade, forces Kyrstin to betray the group in exchange for her true memories, which reveal that she was never the daughter of Myrmeen or an informant for the Night Parade. The Night Parade capture the Harpers, killing Eryn Shandover and forcing the others, along with Lucius’s reanimated corpse, to give them back the apparatus. Tamara, wife to a powerful Night Parade member named Imperator Zeal, realizes she is the sister of Myrmeen Lhal, and betrays the Parade as they are preparing to unleash their festival on Calimport. She tells the remaining Harpers to kill Bellophat, a Night Parade member who brainwashes the whole city with music. They kill Bellophat and awaken the citizens, who rise up against the Night Parade. The Harpers then kill Lord Sixx and stop the Parade from converting Calimport. Myrmeen Lhal finds her biological daughter, Lynelle Argreeves, Princess of Suldolphor, but does not reveal the truth, as her life is peaceful and happy, and returns to Arabel, adopting Kyrstin as her daughter.

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