“Stop!” The Dark Priest threw his hand up. “Don’t try to bewitch her; I won’t have it!”

“She wants to read the books. Is that a crime?”

“No one can read the books!”

“I can!”

“You lie.”

“Show me a book and I’ll read,” Johnis said.

“That’s impossible. Who would know if your rambling matched the words?”

Eyes back on Chelise. “There’s a Horde who knows how to read the books.”

“I must ask you to leave us,” Witch said, turning to Chelise.

Chelise looked from one to the other and back. “There is evil in this room,” she said, then spun on her heels and strode through the door.

“Are you mad, trying to beguile Qurong’s daughter?” Witch cried.

“I’m only trying to get someone in this impossible Horde city to realize that you’ve all missed the most important thing of all. It’s no wonder you can’t win any battles against armies a tenth your size.”

Witch paced by him slowly, stroking his beard. “Is that so? And what would that be?”

“Black magic. You felt it, didn’t you? The sting on your neck? Keep me alive, and I can teach you things you’ve only dreamed of.”

“Trickery won’t save you this time,” Alucard hissed.

“Then kill me now,” Johnis snapped. “You can’t, can you? Not here, where you have your puppets to do your killing. You can’t kill us unless we enter your black forests. Isn’t that right?”

The beast recoiled, and Johnis knew he’d stumbled on the truth. The Shataiki couldn’t destroy the Forest Dwellers unless they either became Horde or entered the Shataikis’ domain.

“Who are you talking to?” Witch demanded.

“To the Shataiki beside you,” Johnis said; then he shifted his eyes back to Alucard. “You’ve come to make sure they do what you failed to do in the Black Forest. You’re here to watch my death.”

“Knowing the truth won’t save you, human!” the black bat said.

Witch had gone a shade paler. He glanced to his left and stepped away. “I’ll ask you one last time, where are the missing books?”

“Keep me alive, and I’ll tell you.”

“Karassssss,” Alucard hissed. “Kill Karassssss.”

“Tell me or I’ll kill Karas,” Witch whispered.

“Then kill me, because I can’t tell you where the books are. I can only open your mind to the black magic.”

The Dark Priest glared at him for several long seconds that stretched into an endless minute. Then he spun and walked from the library.

Four Horde guards came in, pulled Johnis from his chair, hurried him down the steps, and locked him in the same cage that had imprisoned his mother and Silvie.

They snuffed out the oil lamp and slammed the door, leaving him in total darkness.