up the walk toward him.

"I'm sorry," she said and meant it.

He simply nodded, his expression guarded and beaten at the same time.

"Thank you for coming so early. I was not sure what else to do, so I asked the captain to bring you."

"Is it the same?" she asked.

"Yes, both of them," Lanjov answered, and then added as an afterthought, "but the young woman was found in an alley."

His steel hair looked limp and simply gray as dawn began. Magiere couldn't help feeling pity.

Leesil came up quietly beside her, and she was grateful for his presence. He often picked up details that she didn't. Chap sniffed around on the porch, drawing close to Lanjov, who didn't pull away this time. The council chairman motioned them inside, past a sobbing middle-aged maid, through a fair-sized dining room, and down the servants' hall to a back part of the house Lanjov simply referred to as "the kitchens." Magiere entered the macabre scene.

Both bodies were laid out on the large center table with pots and knives hanging above them. Peasants did this for visitation, having no better place to wash the dead before burial, but Magiere was jarred by their lying on a table used for chopping meat and other foods consumed by the wealthy.

"Nothing has been changed or removed from the bodies," Lanjov said, flat and emotionless. "The captain wanted you to see them as found."

"You found him on the front steps?" Leesil asked. "Like Chesna?"

Lanjov nodded. "Yes, across the stairs. The door was not open as with my daughter. His coachman came inside from‘ the rear stable and, not finding Au'shiyn present, stepped out front to discover the body."

Chap reared, placing both paws on the table to sniff at Au'shiyn's body. At this, Lanjov winced and closed his eyes.

Leesil reached out to his dog. "Down, boy."

Magiere winced as well when she looked at Au'shiyn.

His eyes were still open, and one side of the man's throat had been torn away. There were no clean punctures or teeth marks to be seen. The flesh had simply been ripped to veins, and blood covered his clothing all the way to his abdomen.

"His windpipe is crushed," Leesil said, examining the unwounded side of Au'shiyn's throat. He didn't appear remotely squeamish or even moved by any of this, and pointed below the man's chin. "There's a pattern of bruises running around the back of the neck. Fingers. And look at the dark blotch running around front—a thumb."

Leesil walked around the table, his attention turning to the woman's body.

Her grayed, mottled flesh suggested it had been days since her death. She wore a well-made red cotton gown, now soiled with grime from the alley in which she was found. The front was shredded and the shift showed through, but it was spattered rather than soaked with her blood. A tiny red velvet cap was partially pinned to her disheveled hair.

She was small with black hair, and likely of fair complexion when alive.

Magiere looked to Chetnik back in the doorway.

"It's the merchant's daughter-in-law, isn't it?" she asked. "That one in your office the day we came to the barracks."

"I think so," he answered. "I won't be sure until the family identifies the body."

"The wound is different," Leesil broke in, as he leaned against the table's edge staring at her throat. "The teeth marks are clean, no tearing of flesh, and there's less blood on her. This was a feeding. Look at her hair and the bruises on her wrists. At the least, she had time to struggle. Or the creature played with her a bit."

Lanjov averted his eyes, and even Chetnik scowled at that final remark, but Leesil gave them no notice.

"It's unfortunate," he said, "that we don't know more about Chesna's state when she was found."

His gaze skipped back and forth between bodies, and he shook his head ever so slightly. Something bothered him, and Magiere stepped closer.

"What is it?"

"There are no other bruises or marks from a struggle on Au'shiyn, and from his color, the amount of blood on him, and the type of wound, it wasn't a feeding. He died fast, before he could even defend himself."

"They're unconnected?" Chetnik asked with some doubt.

"I'm not certain," Leesil answered. "There's something else wrong here."

"We already know we've been hunting two separate prey," Magiere added.

"Three," Leesil said. "Maybe."

Magiere looked over the bodies again, but couldn't see how he'd come to this conclusion.

"Why three?" she asked.

Leesil remained locked in contemplation.

"These two weren't killed in the same way." His voice was