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I AROSE with Vancha a couple of hours afterin the shade near the cave entrance Harkat watched us with interest, as did Mr Crepsley when he woke early that afternoon Vancha startedit would be months before he triedhim flick and stab the stick atelse, just observe the movements of the stick and learn to identify and anticipate the various ways an attacker had of using it

We practised until Evanna returned, half an hour shy of sunset She said nothing of where she’d been or what she’d been up to, and nobody enquired

"Having fun?" she asked, entering the cave with her entourage of frogs

"Heaps," Vancha replied, throwing the stick away "The boy wants to learn to fight with his hands"

"Are swords too heavy for hihter brightened the cave "I’ with hands - or swords - seems so childish People should battle with their brains"

I frowned "How?"

Evanna glanced at s and I fell to the floor "What’s happening?" I squealed, flopping about like a dying fish "What’s wrong with me?"

"Nothing," Evanna said, and to ht with your brain," she said as I gathered ether "Every part of the body connects to the brain Nothing functions without it Attack with your brain, and victory is all but assured"

"Could I learn to do that?" I asked eagerly

"Yes," Evanna said "But it would take a few hundred years and you would have to leave the vampires and become my assistant" She smiled "What do you think, Darren? Would it be worth it?"

"I’ic, but living with Evanna wasn’t appealing - with her quick te teacher!

"Let e yourtime since I had an assistant, and none ever completed their studies - they all ran off after a few years, though I can’t iine why" Evanna brushed past us into the cave Moments later she called us, and e entered, we found another feast waiting

"Did you usedown to eat

"No," she replied "I simply moved a little faster than nor dinner, then sat around a fire and discussed Mr Tiny’s visit to Vampire Mountain Evanna seemed to know about it already, but let us tell the story and said nothing until we had finished "The three hunters," she ht her up to date "I have been waiting for you for many centuries"

"You have?" Mr Crepsley asked, startled

"I lack Desht into the future," she said, "but I see soht coe to face the Vampaneze Lord, but I didn’t knoho they’d be"

"Do you knoe’ll be successful?" Vancha asked, observing her keenly

"I doubt if even Des futures lie ahead, each as possible as the other It’s rare for fate to boil down to two such evenly matched eventualities Normally the paths of the future are many When two exist like this, chance decides which the world will take"

"What about the Lord of the Vampaneze?" Mr Crepsley asked "Have you any idea where he is?"

"Yes" Evanna sht in his throat