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AS I STIFFENED HELPLESSLY, my life in the hands of whoever had hold of ht hand outstretched like a blade He sliced the hand over the top of my head My assailant releasedheavily to the floor as Mr Crepsley sailed by As the vampire rolled to his feet and spun to strike a second blow, the rabbed me roared, "Stop, Larten! It’s me - Gavner!"
Mr Crepsley paused and I scraer afraid Turning, I saw a burly man with a scarred, patchy face and dark rims around both his eyes He was dressed in clothes like ours, with a hat pulled down over his ears I recognized him immediately - Gavner Purl, a Vaht before h
"You bloody fool, Gavner!" Mr Crepsley shouted "I would have killed you if I had connected! Why did you sneak up on us?"
"I wanted to surprise you," Gavner said "I’ve been following you ht, and this seemed like the perfect time to close in I didn’t expect to alru s and less to Darren andtoward the bloodstained wall and floor
"By the blood of the vampaneze!" Gavner hissed
"Actually, it is the blood of a vampire," Mr Crepsley corrected hi over to test the blood
"None," Mr Crepsley said
Gavner prowled around the inside of the cave, studying the blood and broken coffin, searching fornone, he returned to where ere standing and scratched his chin thoughtfully "He was probably attacked by a wild aniht hi"
"I areed "A bear would have caused great dae to the cave and its contents, but only the coffins have been disturbed"
Gavner ran his eyes over the cave again, noting the tidy state of the rest of it, and nodded "What do you think happened?" he asked
"A fight," Mr Crepsley suggested "Between two vampires, or between the dead vampire and somebody else"
"Who’d be out here in the middle of nowhere?" I asked
Mr Crepsley and Gavner exchanged a troubled look "Vampire hunters, perhaps," Gavner ht in otten so used to the vaotten that there were people in the world who thought ere monsters and made it their business to hunt us down and kill us
"Or maybe humans who chanced upon him by accident and panicked," Mr Crepsley said "It has been a long tiressively trailed us This may have been a case of mere misfortune"
"Either way," Gavner said, "let’s not hang around and wait for it to happen again I was looking forward to resting, but now I think it’s best we don’t cage ourselves in"
"Agreed," Mr Crepsley replied, and after one last sweep of the cave, we retreated, our senses alert to even the slightest hint of an attack
Weof thick trees, and lit a rare fire - all of us felt chilled to the bone after our experience in the cave While ere discussing the dead va area for his body, the Little People returned, carrying a young deer they’d captured They stared suspiciously at Gavner, who stared just as suspiciously back
"What are they doing with you?" he hissed
"Mr Tiny insisted I bring the hand as Gavner swiveled to ask more questions "Later," he promised "Let us eat first and dwell upon the death of our co sun, so we sat up long after dawn, discussing the dead va we could do about hirounds that it would slow us down - talk soon turned to other ain, and Mr Crepsley told him how Mr Tiny had appeared and sent the us