They suddenly heard a noise on the second tier below — something like the ruffle of cloth against stone.

Yoshimo silently pulled Lidia behind a mausoleum.

She asked, in the quietest whisper she could muster: "What is it?"

"We've been tailed the whole way here," Yoshimo said. "At least two."

"Who?"

He shrugged.

"And you're sure they're after us?"

"They've been at my back ever since we stepped into the district," Yoshimo replied. "That's all I know. As for the rest, maybe you ought to ask them yourself."

"I could —"

"I only jest. Please do not actually ask them."

"It'd be better than skulking about in a graveyard full of vampires," Lidia replied.

He shushed her, gesturing with his hand towards the edge of the gray granite wall that hid them from prying eyes below.

Sure enough, voices were floating from beneath them; they sounded like a man and a woman.

They listened closely, and were able to catch most of their conversation from roughly twenty feet away — for people who were supposed to be following them, they were far from quiet.

"Gone," said the man's voice. "Likely the vampires got their talons on 'em. I told you we're barking up the wrong tree. Some bint that doesn't even have a sword on her —"

"The intel we got is from a good source," the woman replied. "No way they got it wrong."

"Still hard to believe she helped kill Galvarey."

"Galvarey was an idiot," the woman replied. "I'm surprised he lived as long as he did."

"Harpers," Lidia mouthed to Yoshimo.

"Aren't they supposed to be subtle?" Yoshimo whispered back.

"Maybe they're not very good ones," she replied.

"Still. They attacked us near Imnesvale, remember?"

Lidia nodded. She was somewhat surprised that they were after her again — she had been under the impression that Jaheira's covert work with them would help smooth things over.

But she only asked Yoshimo, "Any ideas?"

He pressed a small bottle into her hand. "Take a sip."

She did, handing off the bottle to him just before the invisibility potion started working. Though she knew what was coming, she could never get accustomed to the sudden disorientation that resulted from not being able to see her hands or feet.

She leaned against the granite wall, relying on it as a reference point as she stood up.

"All right," she whispered. "We're leaving, right?"

"Yes," he replied. "Straight to the entrance. I'll follow from behind."

As she ducked out from behind the mausoleum and started the descent to the gate near the entrance of the Grave District, Lidia found that the stairs downward were the tricky part. Not only was the Grave District completely dark at this time of night, but it was hard to tell where to set her unseen foot. More than once, she found herself feeling her way forward with the tip of her boot, then taking a step.

The entire effort wasn't nearly quiet enough, but it seemed to do the trick here. She passed by her two followers, unseen — they were crouched behind two gravestones, falling quiet. All she could see of them, however, were their two dark hoods. Otherwise, they'd blended into the shadows fairly well, and they remained on the alert, waiting to see if their quarry would turn up, oblivious to Lidia and Yoshimo's passing.

She hurried past them down the second tier of graves, then the third, going as quickly as she could without losing her footing. Still, when the Grave District was at her back, she allowed herself a sigh of relief as her fingertips and the ends of her boots started coming into view; the invisibility potion had lasted just long enough.

Yoshimo wasn't far behind, turning up at the entrance shortly after she did. Silently, they plunged into the sleeping city, making several unexpected turns into alleyways and detours, putting as much distance from their pursuers as they could.

By the time they returned to the Coronet's front door, they'd seen no further sign of the Harpers following them.

"Think we lost them?" Lidia asked Yoshimo.

"It's difficult to say, but reasonable to assume," he said. "But let's not linger."

They opened the heavy front door and returned to the taproom, which by now was silent and empty. It was closed for the evening, and Bernard had tidied everything up, and for a few hours everyone was asleep.

Only here did Lidia finally shine a little light, willing Azuredge to faintly radiate a pale, cold blue.

"I paid our friends a visit on the way out," Yoshimo said, unfolding his right hand. "Here — they didn't take nearly as much care to keep it hidden on their person as they should."

Lidia brought the light to bear on what he was holding. It was a small, crinkled piece of paper.

She brought it to a nearby table and smoothed it out. The paper contained a short message, written in a fine, somewhat cramped hand:

"The Bhaalspawn has the package. Retrieve it from her. You might try asking first — she can be reasonable. Above all else, she must not keep it or learn where it's been.

Kestrel."

"Before, they were after me, personally. Which I'm far too familiar with by now," Lidia said. "But what could I possibly have that they want?"

Yoshimo shrugged. "It might be a mistake of some kind."

"They didn't seem to think it was. And unless there's some other Bhaalspawn that nobody knows about —"

"You think there might be?" Yoshimo asked.

Lidia replied, "Only Bhaal knows how many of his children there are. The prophecies speak of a 'score of mortal progeny.' It could mean about twenty or many more than that. But if there was in fact another Bhaalspawn in this city, I might have heard about them by now."

"Really?"

"A couple of people have asked me, 'So-and-so might be a Bhaalspawn, do you know them?' As though we all grew up together in a big family."

Yoshimo laughed. "As soon as I tell someone I'm from Kara-Tur, the same thing happens — as though we're all from the same village or some such."

"Mind if I hang on to this?" Lidia asked, picking up the note. "I want to know what this package was."

"Of course," Yoshimo replied. "And I'll be sure to keep an ear open."