his voice.

'About an hour.'

'And for another forty minutes Inquisitors guarded his remains? There are six of them, third- and fourth-grade.' Gesar frowned. 'A powerful magician could have got through.'

'Unlikely,' said Edgar, shaking his head. 'Yes, they are third-and fourth-grade; Roman is the only one who's just about second-grade, but they're equipped with our guard amulets. Not even a Great One could have got through.'

'Then the killer must have been here before they arrived?'

'Most probably,' Edgar confirmed.

'A magician powerful enough to kill a Higher Vampire swiftly . . .' Gesar shook his head. 'I can only think of one candidate.'

'The witch,' Zabulon muttered. 'If she really did have the Fuaran, she might have come back for it.'

'First she abandoned it, and then came back?' Svetlana exclaimed. I realised she was trying to defend Arina. 'That's not logical!'

'Anton and I pursued her,' Edgar responded ingenuously. 'She fled in a panic. Clearly she didn't make a run for it immediately, as we assumed, but hid somewhere nearby. When Witiezslav found the book she sensed it and became frantic.'

Gesar gave Svetlana and me a dark look, but said nothing.

'Perhaps Witiezslav died without any help?' Svetlana persisted. 'He found the book, tried to work some spell in it . . . and was killed. There have been such cases.'

'Aha,' Zabulon said acidly, 'and in the meantime the book grew legs and ran away.'

'I wouldn't even exclude that possibility,' said Gesar, standing up for Svetlana. 'It could have sprouted legs, and it could have run away.'

Silence fell, and in the silence Zabulon's scoffing laugh sounded especially loud.

'Well, well! So we believe in the Fuaran?'

'I believe that someone killed a Higher Vampire with ease,' said Gesar. 'And that someone is not frightened of the Watches or the Inquisition. That very fact demands speedy and efficient investigation. Don't you agree, colleague?'

Zabulon nodded reluctantly.

'If we accept even for one moment that the Fuaran really was here . . .' Gesar shook his head. 'If all the rumours about this book are true . . .'

Zabulon nodded again.

Both Great Magicians froze, looking at each other. Either they were simply trying to stare each other down or, despite all the defences around them, they were managing somehow to conduct a magical conversation.

I walked over to the vampire's remains and squatted down.

A disagreeable sort. Disagreeable, even for a vampire.

But still one of us.

An Other.

Behind my back Edgar was burbling something about the need to bring in fresh reinforcements, and how catching Arina had now become a matter of vital importance. The witch was out of luck. An old violation of the Treaty, even on a grand scale, was one thing. Killing an Inquisitor was something else altogether.

All the facts stacked up against her. Who else was powerful enough to take out a Higher Vampire?

But somehow I didn't believe Arina was guilty . . .

For some reason, I didn't find Witiezslav's remains disgusting at all. Obviously there was nothing human left in him, not even a trace of bone. Grey dust, like damp cigarette ash, maintaining its form, but entirely homogeneous in structure. I touched something that looked a bit like a clenched fist, and was not at all surprised when the dust crumbled away, revealing a crumpled piece of paper.

'A note,' I said.

A deathly silence fell. Since there were no objections, I picked up the piece of paper, straightened it out and read it. And only then looked at the magicians.

They all looked so tense, it was as if they were expecting to hear me say: 'Witiezslav wrote down the name of his killer before he died . . . it was you!'

'Witiezslav didn't write this,' I said. 'It's Arina's writing, she wrote an explanatory note . . .'

'Read it out,' Edgar ordered.

'Dear Inquisitors,' I read in a loud voice. 'If you are reading this, it means that you are still pursuing issues from the past. I suggest a peaceful settlement. You get the book you have been looking for. I get a pardon.'

'So you were looking for it then?' Gesar asked in a very calm voice.

'The Inquisition tries to locate all artefacts,' Edgar replied calmly. 'Including those considered mythological.'

'Would she have got her pardon?' Svetlana asked unexpectedly.

Edgar looked at her in annoyance, but he answered:

'If the Fuaran had been lying here? It's not my decision to make, but the answer's probably yes. If it's the genuine Fuaran.'

'I'm inclined to think now that the book is the genuine article . . .' Gesar said in a quiet voice. 'Edgar, I'd like to