to it. He stood up with a sigh and muttered:

'Witiezslav . . . I can't imagine who could have destroyed him. I would . . . I would have thought twice, no, three times, before engaging him in combat. And you, colleague?'

He looked at Gesar. Gesar took his time answering, surveying the dust with the enthusiasm of a young naturalist.

'Gesar?' Zabulon asked again.

'Yes, yes . . .' Gesar nodded. 'I could have done it. We actually had . . . certain disagreements. But to do it so swiftly . . . and so neatly . . .' Gesar shrugged and spread his hands. 'No, I couldn't have managed that. Alas. It even makes me feel rather envious.'

'The seal,' I reminded him cautiously. 'At temporary registration they apply a seal to vampires . . .'

Edgar looked at me as if I'd said something really stupid:

'But not to agents of the Inquisition.'

'And not to Higher Vampires!' Kostya added defiantly. 'The seal is only applied to petty riff-raff who can't control themselves, novice vampires and werewolves.'

'In fact, I've been meaning for a long time to raise the matter of removing these discriminatory restrictions,' Zabulon put in. 'The seal should not be applied to vampires and werewolves from the second grade upwards, or, better still, from the third . . .'

'Why don't we do away with mutual registration at the place of residence as well?' Gesar asked sarcastically.

'Stop arguing!' Edgar said with an unexpected note of authority in his voice. 'Gorodetsky's ignorance is no excuse for holding a debate! And apart from that, the termination of the vampire Witiezslav's existence is not the most terrible thing about all this.'

'What could be more terrible than an Other who kills Higher Others so effortlessly?' asked Zabulon.

'A book,' Edgar replied laconically. 'The Fuaran. The reason he was killed.'

CHAPTER 2

ZABULON GRINNED. HE clearly didn't believe a single word of what Edgar had just said.

Gesar seemed to be genuinely furious. It was hardly surprising. First I'd nettled him about the Fuaran, and now an Inquisitor was doing the same.

'My esteemed . . . European Inspector . . .' After a brief pause Gesar launched into a speech that was only moderately sarcastic. 'I am no less fascinated by mythology than you are. Among witches, stories about the Fuaran are very widespread, but we know perfectly well that they are no more than an attempt to add lustre to the reputation of their own . . . caste. There are exactly the same kind of folktales in the culture of werewolves, vampires and various kinds of Others who are fated to play a subordinate role in society. But we have a real problem here, and wandering off into the thickets of ancient superstition . . .'

Edgar interrupted him:

'I understand your point of view, Gesar. But the problem is that two hours ago Witiezslav called me on his mobile. While he was checking Arina's things, he stumbled across the secret room. Anyway . . .Witiezslav was very excited. He said the Fuaran was lying in the secret room, that it was genuine. I . . . must confess that I was sceptical. Witiezslav was an excitable character.'

Gesar shook his head doubtfully.

'I didn't come straight away,' Edgar went on. 'Especially since Witiezslav told me he was summoning Inquisition operatives from the security cordon.'

'Was he afraid of something?' Zabulon asked curtly.

'Witiezslav? I don't think so, not anything specific. It's standard procedure when an artefact of such great power is discovered. I completed my round of the security posts and was actually talking to Konstantin when our operatives reported that they had surrounded the house but could not sense Witiezslav's presence. I ordered them to enter – and they reported that there was no one inside. At that point I . . .' Edgar hesitated '. . . felt rather puzzled. Why would Witiezslav hide from his colleagues? I came as quickly as I could, with Kostya. It took us about forty minutes – we didn't want to go through the Twilight because we thought we might need all our Power when we got here – and our agents were unable to put up a reliable portal, there are too many magical artefacts here . . .'

'I see,' said Gesar. 'Go on.'

'There was a cordon round the house and two agents were on guard inside. We entered the secret room together and discovered Witiezslav's remains.'

'How long was Witiezslav left without protection?' Gesar asked, still sounding sceptical, but with a new note of interest in