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THE DOORS to the Hall of Princes could only be opened by a Prince, by laying a hand on the doors or touching a panel on the thrones inside the Hall Nothing could breach the walls of the Hall, which had been built by Mr Tiny and his Little People centuries before

The Stone of Blood was housed in the Hall, and was of vital iical artefact Any vampire who came to the mountain (most of the three thousand vampires in the world had made the trek at least once) laid their hands on the Stone and let it absorb some of their blood The Stone could then be used to track that vampire down So, if Mr Crepsley wanted to knohere Arroas, he had only to lay his hands on the Stone and think about him, and within seconds he’d have a fix on the Prince Or, if he thought of an area, the Stone would tell him how many vampires were there

I couldn’t use the Stone of Blood to search for others - only full-vah it, since it had taken blood from me when I became a Prince

If the Stone ever fell into the hands of the vampaneze, they could use it to track down all the va from them would be ier, some vampires wanted to destroy the Stone of Blood - but there was a legend that it could save us in our hour of greatest need

I was thinking about all this while Paris used the Stone of Blood to manoeuvre troops in the field As reports reached us of vampaneze positions, Paris used the Stone to check where his Generals were, then co them orders to move from place to place It was this which drained him so deeply Others could have used the Stone, but as a Prince, Paris’s as law, and it was quicker for him to deliver the orders himself

While Paris focused on the Stone, Mr Crepsley and ether and building up a clear picture of the move this, but it was our job to take their findings, sort through theestions to Paris We had loads of maps, with pins stuck in to mark the positions of vampires and va a map for ten minutes, and he looked worried "Have you seen this?" he asked eventually, su me over

I stared at the s stuck close together around a city We used five s for vaholds - cities and tohich they defended like bases White flags were stuck in places where we’d won fights Red flags where we’d lost

"What as My eyes were bleary fro on maps and poorly scrawled reports

"The naernail over it

The na to inal home," I muttered It was the city where Mr Crepsley had lived when he was hu me and Evra Von - a snake-boy from the Cirque Du Freak - with hione on a killing spree

"Find the reports," Mr Crepsley said There was a nu it to reports in our files, so we knew exactly what each flag represented After a few minutes, I found the relevant sheets of paper and quickly scanned them

"Of the va into the city The other was leaving The first red flag’s froe clash with several va marks the spot where Staffen Irve lost two of histo the ree of activity around the city"

"Do you think it ?" I asked It was unusual for so hted in one location