"Information," Welstiel answered.
How enlightening, Chane thought, but kept silent on the matter. It was puzzling, too, when Welstiel led them around the town to the east end rather than inland to the manor.
"How will you find this captain?" Chane asked.
Welstiel sat watching the main road through town and occasionally the sparse forest around them. There was little activity past dusk. Then Chane heard a clattering bell off through the trees.
A skinny young boy with thick black hair and freckled skin, not quite in his teens, was herding a group of goats through. The sound came from a crude bell hanging on the collar of the one male in the herd. The boy must have taken his charges out too far, or perhaps they had wandered on their own, and he was returning late.
"Can you charm that boy into fetching his lord's captain?" Welstiel asked. "You seem to have a way with these peasants."
"I will try," Chane answered, ignoring the barb.
He didn't care for these commoners either, but Welstiel's distaste was more acute. Chane understood the crude minds of peasants and how to use them when necessary.
The boy swung a switch to drive his small herd on to the main road, and Chane urged his horse forward through the trees. He kept his distance so as not to startle his would-be messenger.
"Ho there," he called.
The boy stopped to look him over before answering. "Who are you?"
"Friends of the dhampir," Chane said, gesturing to Welstiel back in the trees. He spoke Droevinkan fairly well but with an accent. "Did you meet her?"
The boy shook his head but his face lit up.
"She's the one who saved us! They say she's white as ghost and can pull down a horse with her bare hands. You know her?"
Chane's eyebrows rose. How quickly truth became legend-and sometimes myth-among the masses. If only they knew who had truly "saved" them.
"Yes, and she sent us with an urgent message. It is of great importance but must be handled quietly, only given to your lord's captain."
"Captain Geza?" The boy nodded. "His Elena handles things at the common house for us."
"Can you fetch the captain but not let anyone else hear you? Tell him the dhampir sent us with urgent news, and he should meet us here, away from any ears. Can you do that?"
The boy looked at his flock.
"We'll keep an eye on your herd," Chane said with a compassionate smile. "This is important, my boy."
The boy straightened himself as though a great duty had been placed upon him in service to this legendary dhampir. He nodded once and was off.
Welstiel urged his horse forward beside Chane's. "At times, you astonish me."
Chane shrugged. "You handled the innkeeper in Bela well enough."
"Greed and ignorance require little more than a flash of coin. This is going to be a more… open interrogation. There can be no witnesses, you understand?"
Chane suppressed an indignant retort. "Of course."
They dismounted, leading the horses into the trees but remaining in sight of the main road. The goats wandered by the roadside, and evening rapidly turned to night as the world grew darker.
Chane wondered how this Geza would react to a boy's tale of strange men with a secret message from the dhampir. Had this happened in Chane's mortal life, he would have gathered a retinue of guards before setting foot outside. But Magiere appeared to inspire confidence, and he believed the captain would come alone. Soon a short man in a leather hauberk and gray-blue cape followed the boy up the road out of the town. Chane stepped out, raising a hand to hail them, with Welstiel close behind.
The captain's expression was apprehensive, but he approached with little hesitation and spoke in a lowered voice.
"Young Tenan here says you have a message from Magiere. Has something happened during the journey? She's been gone less than half a day."
Welstiel stepped around Chane. He grabbed the captain's throat before the man could blink. Geza gripped Welstiel's forearm with one hand, reaching for his sword with the other. Before an inch of steel slipped from the sheath, Welstiel snatched his wrist.
Tenan's eyes widened, and the boy turned to run. Chane grasped the back of his neck and pinned his small head against a tree.
"Cry out, and I'll crush your skull," he whispered.
The boy stopped struggling and peered sideways at Geza for help. The captain released Welstiel's arm and struck with his fist.
Welstiel's head barely turned under the blow. He tightened his grip on Geza's throat. As the captain's eyes half closed, Welstiel slapped the man's hand from his sword and pulled the blade himself. He flung Geza into the forest away from the road, and the captain tumbled to the ground, gasping for air.
"Now," Welstiel said, "we need to know where the dhampir has gone and, if she told you, why."
Chane watched the captain lying on the ground, trying to catch his breath in astonishment at being so quickly undone.
"You're after the dhampir?" Geza said between gasps. "She saved this town, and I'll give you nothing to cause her harm."
"Harm?" Welstiel said, and looked to Chane. "Would you please show the good captain what we are capable of?"
Chane snarled. Without hesitation, he lifted the boy from the ground by his neck, so that they both faced Geza. The boy had no time to scream as Chane's teeth wrapped around the slender neck, halfway to the boy's throat. He bit down.
Tenan's legs kicked in the air a few times and fell still.
Chane seldom fed on children. As sweet as their blood could be, they were incapable of putting up a fight. When finished, he tossed the fragile body before Geza, who stared at him in horror.
Welstiel crouched before the captain. "If you think that undead sorcerer was a plague, imagine my companion loose among your people for one night. Or should we start at the manor?"
Geza drew a breath but did not speak. Chane stepped close behind Welstiel, watching the captain with mild interest. The outcome of this conversation was obvious, and all that remained was to see how long it took to play out.
"Without your assistance," Welstiel went on, "we have nowhere else to go. Do you have a son here? A daughter? A wife? I'm sure someone at the manor would cooperate in answering our questions."
Geza's brow furrowed as he rubbed his throat. Chane could tell the man was not accustomed to being helpless.
"What do you want?" the captain whispered.
"I told you," Welstiel responded. "We need to know where the dhampir is going and why."
"And if I tell you, then you and this murdering carrion will go on your way and leave my people be?"
"You have my word," Welstiel said.
"Keonsk," Geza sighed, dropping his gaze. "She heads to the capital."
'To pass through or to stay?"
"It is her destination, to the best of my knowledge."
"Why?"
"Fief records concerning her family. She's looking for information about her father, and that is all I know. Now leave us in peace!"
Chane was surprised how quickly the captain supplied the answers. Even stranger was his sense that the man spoke the truth straight out, and that his ignorance was sincere. But instead of being satisfied, Welstiel gripped the man by the throat again.
"Records of her father?"
Unable to breathe, the captain nodded his confirmation.
Welstiel slammed the palm of his free hand into the side of the captain's jaw. The man's head jerked sideways with an audible snap, and his body went limp. Welstiel stood up as Geza flopped to the ground, eyes open and head tilted at an unnatural angle.
"What is it?" Chane asked, almost alarmed.
Welstiel had never before lost all his composure like this. He stood shifting his weight back and forth.
"Come," he finally said. "Gather the bodies and get the horses."
Chane did as instructed and rode after Welstiel down the road for a half a league. When Welstiel turned aside into the trees and dismounted, Chane followed. The copse Welstiel had entered was so dark that even Chane had trouble seeing clearly. Welstiel stood deep in thought.