“Four,” the first undine said. “Two were human. Two were not. The two who were not put the boy in the river.”

“You said the boy didn’t drown there.” I frowned, thinking. “So he was already dead, then?”

The undines nodded in unison. “Drowned.”

“Drowned, but not in the river? You’re sure?”

“All of us know what drowned men look like, halfling,” the head naiad said with disdain. “We have seen many hundreds of them.”

“No doubt.” I wouldn’t be surprised if she was responsible for a few of them. Ignoring her, I concentrated on the undines. “Okay, the two who weren’t human. What were they?”

“Pale,” one said.

“Hungry,” the other offered.

“Vampires?” I hadn’t considered the possibility that the kids were blood-sluts in the making. But by the look of him, Thad Vanderhei hadn’t been drained, and I’d never heard of vampires drowning anyone.

The undines shook their heads. “No.”

I grimaced. “Ghouls?”

They did their nod-in-unison thing again. I wondered whether undines were a bit simple. It might explain why the naiads were so bitchy, having to share the river with them. “Maybe,” one said. “Not for sure.”

“Okay, so they put the boy in the river. Then what happened?”

“We don’t know,” the other said. “We swam away as fast as we could.”

Lurine muttered something under her breath, the end of her tail lashing ominously. The undines looked scared.

“It’s okay,” I assured them. “I don’t blame you. I would have run away, too. Can you tell me anything else about the people in the boat? Were the humans the boy’s age?”

“Yes,” both of them said. “We think so.”

“Good, very good.” I nodded encouragingly. “What about the other two men? The maybe-ghouls?”

“Not men,” one corrected me. “One man and one woman.”

Huh, interesting.

I pressed them for as many details as they could remember. All I got was that the man and woman were not young, but not old either. The man had dark hair, but they weren’t sure about the woman. The boat was a small motorboat, not a sailboat or a houseboat, but the kind you would take on a short pleasure cruise or fishing trip. Since that described a hundred boats in Pemkowet, it wasn’t a lot of help.

Still, it was tons more information than I’d had an hour ago.

When I couldn’t think of any further angles to pursue, I thanked the undines for their help. “I appreciate it. This is very, very helpful.” I glanced from them to the head naiad. “Why were you so reluctant to share it? Why did you make it so difficult?”

The undines were silent.