WE WENT TO FIND YUE before noon. After hearing of the plan, she looked about as convinced as I had been.

“You want to let them into the town,” she said, as though certain she must have misheard.

“With all the people hidden,” said Mag. “No one will be in danger.”

“Except whoever stands between the vampires and their goal,” said Yue.

“Which will only be us,” I said. In truth, I had to force a great deal of confidence into my words—this was Mag’s idea, and I was determined to support her, but my fingers kept twitching when I took my attention off them, as though they were desperately trying to flee the impending doom of the rest of my body. 

Yue chewed on the inside of her cheek, seemingly unappeased. “Show me,” she said at last.

We took her to the Shades’ hideout and down the secret staircase to the underground chamber. She stood awestruck in the doorway, looking at the size of it.

“How under the sky did they build this?” she muttered.

“I think they had an alchemist, or more than one,” I said. “The people we killed here … they have many powerful friends across Underrealm, powerful and evil. I would wager they had whatever resources they required.”

We showed her the cauldron and the pit beneath it where the fires had burned. Her expression darkened considerably when we told her of the magestones.

“If magestones are involved, then we should notify the Mystics,” she said.

“You have tried to reach them already,” Mag pointed out. “And even if you could, how long would it take them to reach us?”

Yue did not seem to have a counterpoint to that. “So your plan,” she said slowly, “is to lure the creatures using this cauldron? Can they even smell it from outside?”

“They smelled it from leagues away,” I told her. “It is what brought them to Lan Shui in the first place.”

“We fight them first on the street outside,” said Mag. “They will be focused on an objective, and we should be able to kill some of them as they move towards it. There are only five left.”

“Only?” said Yue and I at the same time. It had slipped out of me despite myself.

Recovering quickly, I looked at Yue and gave her a sage nod. “Only.”

“But if we need to fall back,” Mag pressed on, glaring at me, “we can do so safely. We can fight them in the house above, while they try to figure out a way down into the basement, and if any of them make it to the cauldron, we can attack them while they feed.”

“Try and explain, again, how this is better than fighting them at the walls,” said Yue, folding her arms.

“What are walls to these beasts?” I said. “They can leap up them in one bound.”

“Did you ever serve in a king’s army? In a mercenary company?” said Mag.

“No,” admitted Yue.

“Then take it from the two of us, who have fought on many battlefields across nine kingdoms,” said Mag. “An enemy who dearly wants an objective is easy to manipulate. If you can force them to approach it, you can plan your attack. Our enemies have an advantage in their speed and their strength. But we also have an advantage, for they are little more than animals. We have to out-think them.”

There was a long moment of silence while Yue looked slowly between us and the cauldron in the center of the room.

“Very well,” she said at last. “But we will take additional precautions.”

“Such as what?” I said.

“They must be watched as they enter the town,” said Yue. “To make sure they do not deviate from the course you intend them to take. I will not invite them into Lan Shui, only to have them turn aside and rip open the homes of innocent villagers who will be unable to defend themselves.”

I glanced at Mag. “Constable, you have seen how quickly the beasts move. Mag and I cannot track them from the walls all the way back to this house quickly enough to try and defend it.”

“No, you will remain here,” said Yue. “Ashta and I will see to the safety of the town. I am sure some others will want to help, as well.”

“Your lives will be in grave danger if you do,” said Mag quickly. “You would do better to—”

“No,” said Yue, swiping her hand through the air like a knife. “This is my town. You may go through with this plan, but only if you do as I say. We may be at some risk, but we would rather face that danger than let others face it in our stead. And once I tell the townsfolk what you plan to do, I doubt you will be able to keep at least some of them from trying to help. Better to accept the help, if it cannot be turned away, and use it to ensure that as few lives are risked as possible.”

Mag could hardly argue with that. “Very well, constable,” she said. “I wish you would allow us to face this danger alone. But I thank you nevertheless.”

“And I, for one, do not wish to face it alone,” I said. “If that matters to anyone, which it does not seem to.”

Mag held forth her hand. It took a moment, but Yue grasped her wrist firmly. “Just make sure you kill the things.”

“We will,” I promised.

The rest of the day was spent in frenzied preparation. Yue and Ashta put word out through the town, and the folk of Lan Shui rushed to secure themselves in their homes. Of those who were physically fit to fight, many volunteered to take up arms against the vampires. Yue took most of these and stationed them throughout the town, to hide with the others and act as guards. If the beasts deviated from the path we had planned for them, these guards would be the first to respond. The rest, mayhap a dozen of the fittest townsfolk, were stationed between the walls and the house—the first line of defense if the vampires should turn aside from their hunt.

We finished our work just in time. The sun lowered in the west, its edge just beginning to slide beneath the top of the land spur. The warm day had begun at last to cool. Someone brought a cold meal to Mag and me at the Shade hideout, and Yue joined us there to eat. We sat on the ground outside the house, scraping the last of the food from our bowls with our fingers. While we ate, I noticed Yue giving us sidelong looks—though she did not seem as suspicious as she might once have been, which encouraged me.

“Is this what you do?” she said, as Mag discarded her bowl on the ground and I gave mine to Oku to lick clean.

“What?” I said, blinking at her.

“The vampires. The ones who used to live here, in this house. Is it your duty to seek out such things and end them? Are you some special sort of … of Mystic?”

Mag and I laughed, together, though we probably should not have done. “No, constable,” I said. “This is not something we do often—that we have ever done before, in fact.”

“What brought you here, then?” she said. “And do not give me the same lies you told when you first arrived. I have placed much faith in you today. I want a real answer.”

Mag and I exchanged glances. But truth seemed the only option.

“We come from the town of Northwood, as we said,” Mag told her. “Some weeks ago, it was attacked.”

Yue’s brows rose. “Like here?”

“No,” I said. “Not vampires. By an army. They call themselves Shades. The ones who dwelled here were their compatriots.” I jerked my thumb at the Shade hideout beside us.

“Who are they?” said Yue, eyeing the building.

“In truth, I know little of their aims, or where they came from,” I said. “That boy, Pantu—may he rest in the darkness—he told me they came from Calentin. All I know for certain is that they had a stronghold in the Greatrocks, until a wizard came and drove them out of it. Then they attacked Northwood in great strength and nearly razed it in revenge.”

“And when they did, they killed my husband,” said Mag softly.

Yue let a long moment of silence pass. “That is an ill thing to hear,” she said at last.

Mag pressed on. “There was a weremage. She led their forces in Northwood. She took the form of a lion and killed my Sten. And when they withdrew, she fled west into the Greatrocks. We followed her trail here to Lan Shui. We hoped to find her here, though of course now we know she left this place before we even came.”

“Yet you remain,” said Yue.

“Of course,” said Mag, shrugging. “We are not without a conscience.”

I smiled, and Yue appeared to hide a smirk. “Well. You should not have kept all this from me when you arrived,” she said.

“I suppose the King’s law would say so,” I said. “Would you have allowed us in if we had been honest?”

“Do you jest?” said Yue. “Of course not. Yet I suppose, after a fashion, that I am glad you came.”

“That is how latrine duty often works,” I said.

Yue blinked at me. “What?” she asked, while Mag tried hard to suppress her laughter.

“Nothing.”

Stars had begun to appear in the sky above. The moons had not yet risen, but I could almost see the glow of them in the east. I pushed myself to my feet.

“Time is nearly upon us,” I said.

“In my experience, time is always upon us, depending on what time you mean.” Yue got to her feet and held out her hand a final time. She took Mag’s wrist first, and then mine. “Do your best not to get killed tonight.”

“We will not,” said Mag. “You have made it clear to us how much trouble it is to get rid of bodies.”

“Not so much trouble,” said Yue. “The vampires will only be acting in self-defense, after all. Does that not excuse any amount of killing?”

I laughed at that. “Keep yourself safe as well tonight, constable.”

“I will try.”

She took off down the street at a trot, making for the gate where she would stand with the vanguard. Mag and I prepared our weapons and made ready for the night’s battle to come.