"We're ready," Leesil answered.

"As a formality, you must turn over all weapons to our guards." The diminutive secretary paused with an apologetic expression on his face. "Who will, of course, take proper care and return them upon your departure."

Magiere stared at him. "Why?"

Clearly not accustomed to confrontation, Doviak stammered for a moment.

"I assure you, it is standard policy for security." He proffered a short bow of his head. "Though in your case, dhampir, it would simply be a courtesy on your part."

"Oh, give them your sword," Leesil blurted out. "I doubt you'll have need of it here."

Magiere scowled but began unbelting her scabbard.

"And where," Doviak began in a cautious tone, "will the mistress be leaving her dog?"

"He stays with us," Leesil said flatly.

Doviak opened his mouth to argue and then closed it.

Magiere surrendered her falchion to one guard, who in turn asked, "Anything else?"

"That's all," she answered sharply.

The guard nodded. Leesil still wore his two "everyday" stilettos inside of his shirtsleeves, but he saw no need to mention them.

They were ushered down a wide corridor, Doviak leading the way, and the guards following behind. They turned into another wide hallway headed for huge double doors of carved dark wood. Along the passage were smaller side doors, and standing before one were an elderly man and a young woman, both wearing simple gray robes. Even in their plain attire, Leesil found them mildly curious and then outright unsettling as they stared back, looking him over as if he were some strange animal that had managed to get into the building unnoticed.

The young woman paused from chatting with her elder companion and absorbed the sight of Leesil, then Magiere, and finally Chap. Her face was smooth and oval, and she didn't blink once as she looked over the trio, particularly Chap. She offered a mild smile in greeting and spoke directly to Leesil.

"Majaye tudg bithva annaseach esh dille! Sheorsde a'bithva?"

He didn't understand it, but felt an uncomfortable tickle of familiarity with the sounds. The woman was speaking Elvish to him, though something was different compared to the few words he had heard in the past from his mother.

"I'm sorry," Leesil replied. "I don't speak…"

"Oh." She appeared embarrassed and confused at the same time. "I apologize… I did not realize."

Leesil looked away, avoiding the situation altogether, then noticed Chap's attention fixed upon the woman. His tail was wagging. At that, Leesil couldn't help looking back as well.

The woman gazed at the hound with eyes narrowed in puzzlement. Then, as if the moment never happened, Chap turned and loped to catch up. The huge doors opened, and Doviak ushered all three of them into the adjoining chamber.

Leesil found himself standing between Magiere and Chap in a cavernous room buzzing with hushed activity. Guards stood at all four corners, and attendants unobtrusively poured tea, took cloaks, and refilled inkwells on the immense table. Life-size portraits of unsmiling, conservatively dressed, middle-aged men hung at intervals on all four walls between cobalt curtains trimmed in white. And the table…

He couldn't imagine a mahogany tree large enough to provide that solid, singular piece of wood. Its oblong surface stretched over half the room's length, from door to the far wall, in all its refined glory. At least thirty men of various ages sat around it in high-backed mahogany chairs and stared at the new arrivals.

Magiere didn't appear impressed by the scene before them. She stepped up to the table's rear end, following Doviak, and the little man stopped to announce them.

"Mistress Magiere and…" Doviak paused, looking uncomfortably at Chap and Leesil. "And party."

At the table's far end, in the position of central authority, one man stood up. He was unusually tall, with broad shoulders and steel-gray hair, and everything he wore from collar to cuffs was impeccable. Again, Leesil wished he'd at least taken time to wash his shirt.

"I am Alexi Lanjov, chairman of the council for Bela," the man said. He hesitated, looking her over with uncertainty. "You are Magiere? The hunter from Miiska?"

Leesil sensed that Lanjov was usually skilled at guarding his thoughts, but there was no hiding the shock in his eyes. Magiere was clearly not what he expected.

Magiere looked straight at Lanjov without notice of anyone or anything else in the room.

"Yes, I'm the hunter you requested."

Several council members whispered to each other in low tones. An old man dressed entirely in black pointed at Chap.

"Animals are not allowed in the council chamber. They are not even allowed in the building."

Leesil put his hand on Chap's back and felt the dog tense, as if Chap knew he'd become the object of attention. Magiere's gaze shifted to the old man, resting upon him for the span of a breath. Without comment, she returned her attention to Lanjov.

"Your offer has been accepted," she said. "All we need now are the details. Your letter said a girl was killed on her own doorstep. We need the location and a piece of her clothing, and we will start from there."

Lanjov's face grew pale, and he breathed in audibly. The whispers grew into muttering until a strong voice with a vaguely familiar accent rose above them.

"And what, exactly, are you planning to start?"

Leesil followed the voice to an unusual man with shoulder-length black-brown hair, a close-trimmed beard, and pockmarked ginger-colored skin. He wore a silk robe of dark amber and exuded visible arrogance.

Lanjov raised one hand in the air. "Lord Au'shiyn… we addressed your concerns before, and the matter was settled."

Au'shiyn. Leesil repeated the name in his mind. It wasn't Stravinan or Belaskian. He wondered if the man was from the deep parts of Droevinka, but the accent didn't match and his name didn't sound of that country or language. Then Leesil recognized where he'd heard such an accent before.

Au'shiyn spoke like Rashed, the warrior undead Magiere had fought in Miiska. And Rashed had been Suman in his living days. What was a man from the Suman Empire doing on the Bela city council?

"It was not adequately settled," Au'shiyn answered coldly, and he turned on Magiere again. "What exactly do you believe you are to hunt?"

For the first time since entering the council chambers, Magiere's expression grew uncertain.

"Your council sent for me," she said directly to Lanjov. "The letter was very clear."

"Yes, yes," answered a young man with reddish-blond hair sitting at Lanjov's side. He appeared earnest but distressed at the dissension. "Please understand, our offer is genuine. It is Councilman's Lanjov's daughter who was murdered at his own home. This is difficult for him to discuss."

Lanjov nodded but looked no less troubled.

One word the younger man at Lanjov's side had used now stuck in Leesil's thoughts: murdered.

He'd read the letter sent to Miiska's council mentioning a girl killed, but he'd never heard the term "murder" in connection to vampires. "Killed" or "slaughtered," or a number of more disturbing terms. This young man's tone was different.

Lord Au'shiyn picked up on the word as well. "Indeed, the poor girl was murdered, so I would like to know why our own city guard has not tracked down her killer."

"Because the killer isn't natural!" the young man burst out. "It is an undead that feeds on blood. For that, we need a dhampir. The city guard has tried and failed."

Au'shiyn burst out laughing. "Yes, a dhampir." With amusement, he appraised Magiere. "One of your parents is of these predatory corpses-a vampire? Which one? Mother or father?"

Magiere's expression turned cold. Leesil eyed the four guards around the room and was particularly glad she'd been disarmed before entering. Even the doubtful men around Au'shiyn had the good taste to look embarrassed.