THE OCCURRENCES OF THAT NIGHT SIXTEEN YEARS AGO HAD ALL COME RUSHING BACK IN A FLOOD OF VIVID MEMORIES, AND THE BEAT OF TRASK'S HEART HAD PICKED UP SPEEDTOMATCHTHESUDDENFLOWOF ADRENALINE. 'David?' he said, making it a question. Chung answered with a grim nod, simply that, and whisked him into the elevator. But as the doors slid shut on them and they were alone, he uttered those words which Trask most dreaded to hear: 'He's back.' Trask didn't want to believe it. 'He?' he husked, knowing full well who he must be, the only one he could be. 'Harry?' Chung nodded, shrugged helplessly, seemed lost for words. 'Something of him,' he answered at last, 'who or whatever he is now. But yes, Ben, I'm talking about Harry. Something of Harry Keogh has come back to us .. .' VAMPIRE WORLD II THE LAST AERIE Exploring New Realms in Science Fiction/Fantasy Adventure Titles already published or in preparation: Echoes of the Fourth Magic by R. A. Salvatore When a U.S. submarine set out from Miami and was drawn off- course by the murderous magic of the Devil's Triangle, Officer Jeff BRIAN LUMLEY DelGiudice survived the terrifying plunge through the realms. But his good fortune had a shocking consequence. He found himself stranded in a strange world awaiting its redeemer. Here four survivors ruled the corner of the once-great Earth with the ways of white magic ... until one of them tasted the ecstasy of evil. Thalasi, Warlock of Darkness, had amassed an army to let loose death and chaos, and only the hero promised in the guardians' legends can defeat such power. Now Jeff must face his destiny -in a dangerous, wondrous quest to lead humankind's children back to the realms of Light. The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula Le Guin Wizard of Earthsea • The Tombs of Atuan The Farthest Shore As long ago as forever and as far away as Selidor, there lived the dragonlord and Archmage, Sparrowhawk, the greatest of the great wizards — he who, when still a youth, met with the evil shadow- beast; he who later brought back the Ring of Erreth-Akbe from the Tombs of Atuan; and he who, as an old man, rode the mighty dragon Kalessin back from the land of the dead. And then, the legends say, Sparrowhawk entered his boat, Look/or, turned his back on land, and without wind or sail or oar moved westward over sea and out of sight. A ROC BOOK ROC Of all the bars at all the conventions Published by the Penguin Group in all the world, you had to walk into mine. Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England Penguin Here's looking at you, kid! Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England First published 1993 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Copyright © Brian Lumley, 1993 All rights reserved The moral right of the author has been asserted "**- Roc is a trademark of Penguin Books Ltd Typeset by Datix International Limited, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser PART ONE E-Branch I Harry's Passing To the members of E-Branch, bad dreams were an occupational hazard; it was generally accepted that nightmares went with the work. Ben Trask, current head of the Branch, had always had his share of bad dreams. Indeed, since the Yulian Bodescu affair twelve years ago, he'd had more than his share. And only half of them when he was asleep. The sleeping ones were of the harmless variety: they frightened but couldn't kill you. They were engendered of the waking sort, which were very different: sometimes they could kill and worse. Because they were real. As for this one, it wasn't so much a bad as a weird dream. And weirder because Trask was wide awake, having driven his car through the wee small hours of a rainy night into the heart of London, and parked it opposite E-Branch HQ . .. without knowing why. And Trask was fussy about things like that; he generally liked to be responsible for his actions. It was a Sunday in mid-February of 1990, one of those rare days when Trask could get away from his work and switch off, or rather switch on, to the normal world which existed outside the Branch. It should have been one of those days, anyway. But here he was, at E-Branch HQ in the middle of the sleeping city; and in the eye of his mind this weird dream which wouldn't go away, this daydream repeating over and over, like flick- ering frames from an old monochrome movie projected Trask knew that if he were someone or thing other than onto a window, so that he could see right through it. A who and what he was — head of a top-secret, in more ghost film; if he blinked his eyes rapidly it would vanish, than one way esoteric security organization — that the however momentarily, and return just as soon as he experience must surely scare the hell out of him. Except, relaxed: well, he'd been scared by experts. Or, he might believe he A corpse, smouldering, with its fire-bJackened arms was going mad. But there again, E-Branch was ... E- flung wide; steaming head thrown back as in the final Branch. This thing he was experiencing, it must be in his agony of death; tumbling end over end into a black void mind, he supposed. It had to be, for there was no physical shot through with thin neon bars or ribbons of blue, mechanism to account for it. Or was there? green, and red light. Hallucination? Well, possibly. Someone could have It was a tortured thing, yes, but dead now from all of its got to him, fed him drugs, brainwashed him ... but to torments and no longer suffering; unknown and what end? Why bring him here in the dead of night? And unknowable as the weird waking dream which it was. why bring these other people here? (The extra lights up And yet there was something morbidly familiar about it; there, the shiny black MG Metro pulling into the kerb, so that watching it, Trask's face was grey and his lips and the bloke across the road - an E-Branch agent, drawn back in a silent snarl from his strong, slightly surely? - even now running through the rain towards the yellow teeth. If only the corpse would stop tumbling for a Branch's back door entrance.) Why were they here? moment and come into focus, give him a clearer shot of 'Sir?' A girl struggled stiffly, awkwardly out of the the blistered, silently screaming face ... Metro. She was Anna Marie English, a Branch esper. Trask got out of his car into a sudden squall of leaden English by name but never an English rose - nor any sort raindrops, as if some Invisible One had dipped his hands of rose by any other name - she was enervated, pallid, in water and scooped it into Trask's face. And muttering a dowdy, a stray cat drowning in the rain. It was her talent, curse as he turned up the collar of his overcoat, he Trask knew, and he felt sorry for her. She was glanced at the building across the street, craning his neck 'ecologically aware'; or as she herself was wont to put it, to peer up at the high windows of E-Branch. Up there he she was 'as one with the Earth'. When water tables expected to see a light - just one, burning in a window set declined and deserts expanded, so her skin dried out, centrally in the length of the entire upper storey which became desiccated. When acid rains ate into Scandinavian was the Branch - lighting the room which housed the forests, her dandruff fell like snow. In her dreams she Duty Officer through his lonely night vigil. Well, he saw heard whale species singing sadly of their decline and the Duty Officer's light, right enough, and keeping it inevitable extinction, and she knew from her aching company, three or four more which he hadn't expected. bones when the Japanese were slaughtering the dolphins. But he saw more than the lights, for even the rain couldn't A human lodestone, she tracked illicit nuclear waste, wash away the tortured, monotonously tumbling figure monitored pollution, shrank from from the screen of his mind. yawning holes in the ozone as a coral polyp from a sion. Perhaps it had to do with his talent: in a world diver's probing spearpoint. Yes, she was an 'ecopath': she where the plain truth was increasingly hard to find, it felt for the Earth and suffered all of its sicknesses, and was no easy thing being a lie-detector. White lies, half- unlike the rest of us knew that she, too, was dying from truths, and downright fables came at Trask from all them. directions, until sometimes he felt he didn't want to look Trask looked at her: she was twenty-four and looked any more. fifty. Despite his pity, perhaps paradoxically, he thought But Anna Marie English had her own problems. of her in harsh, disassociated, almost disapproving terms Finally she nodded her bedraggled mop of a head. 'I see - thick-lensed spectacles, liver spots, hearing aid, it, yes, but don't ask me what it's all about. I woke up, straggly-haired, crumpled blouse, splay-legged - and saw it, and knew I had to come here. That's all. But I've a knew he disliked her because she mirrored the decline of hunch the world's a loser yet again.' Her voice was a the world. And that was his talent at work. Ben Trask was coughing rasp. a human lie-detector: he recognized a lie when he saw, 'A hunch?' felt, heard, or otherwise perceived one as other men This thing isn't specific to me,' she frowned. This time recognize a slap in the face; so that conversely, in the I'm just . . . an onlooker? It isn't hurting me. I feel for absence of falsehood he must acknowledge truth. Except him, yes, but his fate doesn't seem to have made much Anna Marie English's truth was unbearable. If impression on the world in general. Yet at the same Greenpeace had her and could make the world believe in time, somehow I think it makes the world less.' her, they would win their case in one ... though of course 'Do you know him?' it would be lost at one and the same time. For they'd 'I feel that I should know him, certainly,' she suspect that they were too late. But Trask also knew that answered, simultaneously shaking her head. And it wasn't quite like that. The world was a huge creature ruefully, 'I know that I was watching him when I should and had been sorely wounded, and Anna Marie English have been watching the road. I went through two red was just too small to sustain so much damage. But while lights at least!' she was suffering almost beyond endurance, the Earth Trask nodded, took her by the elbow and guided her could go on taking it for a long time yet. This was Trask's across the street. 'Let's join them and see if anyone else view of it, anyway. He supposed it made him an optimist, has a clue.' In fact he already had more than a clue but which was something of a paradox in itself. was unwilling to give it voice. If he was right, then just 'Can you see it?' he said. 'Do you have any idea what like the ecopath he could scarcely view this it's all about?' phenomenon as Earth-damaging. In fact it might even She looked at him and saw a mousey-haired, green- be a relief. eyed man in his late thirties. Trask was about five feet With Whitehall no more than a ten minute walk away, ten, a little overweight and slope-shouldered, and wore the torn front page from a discarded Pravda seemed what could only be described as a lugubrious expres- strangely out of place where it spun slowly in the current of the flooded gutter, inching soggily and 6 Hologram or phantom? Trask wondered. Gadget ... perhaps prophetically towards the iron-barred throat of a or ghost? When he was a kid he'd believed in ghosts. gurgling sump. But as if in defiance of the stinging rain, Then for a time he hadn't. Now he worked for E-Branch the night, and all other distractions, the phantom and ... sometimes he wished he were a kid again. For hologram continued to display itself wherever the glances then it was all in the imagination. of Trask and Anna Marie English happened to fall. It was lan Goodly, the Night Duty Officer, was waiting for there in the tiny unmanned foyer, playing on the neutral them in the corridor. Very tall, skeletally thin and grey doors of the elevator as if projected there from their gangly, he was a prognosticator or 'hunchman'. Grey eyeballs; and when the doors hissed open to admit them, and mainly gaunt-featured, Goodly's expression was they took it with them into the cage to be carried up to the usually grave; he rarely smiled; only his eyes - large, top floor offices of E-Branch HQ. brown, warm and totally disarming - belied what must The rest of the building was a well-known hotel; bright otherwise constitute a rather unfortunate first lights at the front, and a uniformed doorman from the impression, that of a cadaverous mortician. 'Anna,' he Corps of Commissionaires sheltering from the rain under offered the girl a polite nod. 'Ben?' his striped plastic canopy, or more likely inside taking a Trask returned the unspecified query. 'Do you see it, coffee with the night clerk now that all the guests were too?' abed. But up here on the top floor . . . 'We all do,' Goodly answered, his voice high-pitched This was a different world. And a weird one. and a little shrill, but not unusually so. And before E-Branch: Ben Trask felt much the same about it now Trask could say anything else: T guessed you'd be in. as he had fourteen years ago when he was first recruited, I've told them to wait for you in the Ops room.' and as every Branch esper before and since. Alec Kyle, 'How many of them?' an old friend and ex-Head of Branch was dead and gone Goodly shrugged. 'Everyone within a thirty mile radius.' now, (was he? And his body, too? Was that what this was Trask nodded. Thanks, lan. I'll go and speak to them. all about?) but he had come closest to it when he'd used And you'd better go back to keeping watch.' to say, 'E-Branch? A bloody funny outfit, Ben! Science Again Goodly's shrug. 'Very well, but apart from this and sorcery — telemetry and telepathy - computerized it's going to be a quiet night. This thing is happening, probability patterns and precogni-tion - gadgets and and soon it will be finished. And then we'll see what ghosts. We have access to all of these things .. . now.' we'll see.' He began to turn away. That 'now' had qualified it. For at the time, Kyle had Trask caught his arm and stopped him. 'Any ideas?' been talking about Harry Keogh. And later he had Goodly sighed. 'I could give you . . . an "educated become Harry Keogh; Keogh's mind in Kyle's body, guess". But I suspect you'd prefer to let it play itself anyway . . . out, right?' Like all hunchmen, he was cautious about The cage jerked to a halt; its doors hissed open; Trask being too specific. The future didn't like being pinned and the unnaturally aged 'girl', and the hologram, got out. down. 8 was even now in enactment, somewhere else. And more Someone had called the elevator; its doors closed and than ever Trask believed he knew this ... victim? And the indicator signalled its descent. As Goodly made to more than ever he suspected that this was a scene from return to his watch, Trask uttered a belated, 'Right,' then another world, even another universe. turned left along the corridor and headed for the Ops On entering the room, the Head of Branch had noted room. And Anna Marie English limped along behind him. the identities of the eleven. There was Millicent Cleary, a In the Ops room they found their colleagues waiting pretty little telepath whose talent was still developing. for them. In front of the briefing podium an area had There seemed little doubt but that one day she would be a been cleared of chairs where eleven espers formed an power in her own right, but right now she was vulnerable inward-facing circle. Trask and the girl made thirteen. A - telepathy could do that to a person - and Trask thought witch's dozen, he thought, wryly. We complete the coven. of her as the kid sister he'd never had. Then there was As the circle opened up and its members adjusted their David Chung, a hugely talented locator and server. He positions the better to accommodate the latecomers, so was slight, wiry, slant-eyed and yellow as they come. But Trask saw the point of the formation. The combined he was British from birth, a Londoner, and fiercely loyal to awareness of the espers added to the hologram's the Branch. All of them were loyal, or else the Branch authentication: to experience the thing as a group was to would fail. Chung tracked Soviet stealth subs, IRA units focus it, lend it definition. And the hitherto nebulous in the field, drug-runners -especially the latter. Addiction mental projection expanded in a moment from a 3-D had killed his parents, which was where his talent had its picture in Trask's mind's eye to a seemingly physical, genesis. And it was still growing. apparently solid figure right there in front of him! But The precog Guy Teale stood to the left of Trask. Like only apparently solid, for obviously it wasn't real. lan Goodly, he was 'gifted' in reading the future, a suspect The ring formed by the espers was maybe fifteen to talent at best. The future didn't like being read and had eighteen feet in diameter; the location of the smouldering kicked back more than once. Teale was small, thin, corpse where it tumbled backwards, head over heels, free jumpy. Easily startled, he lived on his nerves. His of the floor, as on some invisible spit, was no more than sometime partner Frank Robinson, a spotter who infallibly ten feet away from any individual viewer. If it were solid recognized other espers, stood next to him. Robinson was - if it were 'here' at all - then the figure would have to be as blond as Teale was dark; boyish and freckled, he that of a child or a dwarf. But its proportions were those looked only nineteen or thereabouts, which was seven of a normal, adult human being. And so the apparition years short of the mark. The pair had worked with Trask was some kind of hologram, viewed as from a on the Keogh job some six or seven months ago; they'd considerably greater distance than was apparent. It was helped him corner the Necroscope in his house near like a scene in a crystal ball: they were seeing something Edinburgh, and burn the place to the ground. That had which had happened, or which caused Harry to escape right out of this world to a place on the other side of the Perchorsk 10 11 Gate. Since then, everyone who knew the score had Keogh something, the whole world. It would have been prayed that he wouldn't be back. And he hadn't been ... so easy for the Necroscope to release the plague of ... Until now? Trask wondered. Is this - image - is it vampirism which he carried within himself upon all Harry? And he suspected that they were all wondering humanity and be emperor here, with an entire planet for the same thing. And just like him, they'd all be glad that his empire. But instead he'd let them hound him into exile it was only an image. in an alien world of vampires, where he would be just Paul Garvey, a full-blown telepath, stood directly one more monster. Harry had let it happen, yes, before the opposite Trask on the other side of the circle. He caught Thing inside him could take full control. Trask's eye through the rotation of the projection and But whenever Trask thought back on that, on the alien nodded almost imperceptibly. It was his passions which had governed Harry - how he'd looked acknowledgement of Trask's thought, which Garvey had the last time Trask saw him, in the garden of his burning 'heard'. Yes, they were all thinking pretty much the same house not far from Edinburgh - then his own mixed thing. emotions would sort themselves out in short order, and he Garvey was tall, well-built, and had been a good- would know it was for the best: looking thirty-five year old. But then, that time six The lower half of Harry's figure had been mist-shro- months ago, he'd tackled a murderous swine called :ded, visible only as a vague outline in the opaque, milky Johnny Found and lost most of the left side of his face. swirl of his vampire mist ... but the rest of him had been Since then some of the best plastic surgeons in England all too visible. He'd worn an entirely ordinary suit of had worked on Garvey till he looked pretty good, but a dark, ill-fitting clothes which seemed two sizes too small real face is made of more than flesh. Garvey's was for him, so that his upper torso sprouted from the trousers mostly tissue now, and the nerves didn't connect up too to form a blunt wedge. Framed by a jacket held together well. He could smile with the right side but not the left, by one straining button, the bulk of Harry's rib-cage had and so avoided the travesty by not smiling at all. been massively muscular. It had happened when they were tracking Harry His white, open-necked shirt had burst open down the Keogh, who in turn had been tracking Found, a front, revealing the ripple of his muscle-sheathed ribs and necromancer whose speciality was to molest women the deep, powerful throb of his chest; the shirt's collar had before and after they were dead. Garvey had made the looked like a crumpled frill, insubstantial around the mistake of finding Harry's quarry first, that was all. But corded bulk of his leaden neck. His flesh was a sullen the Necroscope had squared it; later, in a graveyard, the grey, dappled lurid orange and sick yellow by leaping fire police had discovered Pound's body so badly chewed up and gleaming moonlight. And he towered all of a foot that he was barely recognizable. And despite everything taller than Trask, quite literally dwarfing him. But his face else that was happening at the time - the fact that Harry — had been a prime target - Garvey still reckoned he owed - That had been the absolute embodiment of a waking him for that. nightmare.' His halogen Hallowe'en eyes which had As for Ben Trask, he reckoned they all owed Harry 12 13 Those myriad golden splinters speeding outwards seemed to drip sulphur. And his . . . grin? A grin, was from the sunburst, angling this way and that, sentient, that what it had been? Maybe, in an alien vampire world seeking, disappearing into as many unknown places. called Starside on the other side of the Mdbius Those - pieces - of the Necroscope, Harry Keogh? All Continuum. But here on Earth it had been the rabid that remained of him? And as the last of them had slavering grimace of a great wolf; here it was teeth zipped by Trask and vanished silently out of view - out visibly elongating, curving up and out of gleaming gristle into the corridor, apparently - so the streamers of blue, jaw-ridges to shear through gums which spurted splashes green and red metaphysical light had blinked out of of hot ruby blood; here it was a writhing of scarlet lips, a being, returning the briefing room's illumination to flattening of convoluted snout, a yawning of mantrap normal. jaws. Except ..". that last golden dart had seemed so real. That face ... that mouth ... that crimson cavern of Why, Trask could have sworn that it had actually stalactite, stalagmite teeth, as jagged as shards of white, materialized right here in the Ops room, sentient and broken glass. What? Like the gates of hell? That and solid, before speeding out into the corridor and worse, for Harry had been Wamphyri! disappearing from view! Trask started massively as Anna Marie English, standing And now, within the room, thirteen startled, gaping, on his right, grasped his elbow and needlessly, extraordinary human beings. But perfectly ordinary in breathlessly stated, 'Sir, he's moving away from us.' comparison to what they had witnessed ... She was right, as everyone there could see. The Trask forced himself into action, stepped across the hologram of the corpse was getting smaller, falling or room to where David Chung was still mazed, staggering. receding faster and faster towards a multi-hued, He took hold of him, steadied him, snapped, 'David, are nebulous origin or destiny out of which the blue, green, you all right?' and red ribbons of neon light reached like writhing 'No - yes,' the other answered. 'But he isn't.' He licked tentacle arms to welcome it. The smoking, rotating figure dry lips and closed his slack mouth, half-pointed and dwindled; it became a mote, a speck; it disappeared! flapped a hand towards the centre of the room where the And where it had been - espers were moving about once more. - An explosion! A sunburst of golden light, expanding 'Was it Harry?' Trask breathed. silently, hugely, awesomely! So that the thirteen observers Chung sighed heavily and collapsed a little into gasped and ducked down; and despite that it was in their himself. 'Oh, yes. It was Harry, Ben. It was him.' group mind, they turned away from the blinding intensity The end of him?' of the glare and what flew out of it. All except Ben Trask, Chung nodded, opened his trembling hand and showed who shielded his eyes and shrank down a little but the other what he was holding: a pig-bristle hairbrush continued to watch - because he must know the truth. whose oval wooden plaque fitted snug in his palm. For a Trask, and also David Chung, who cried his moment Trask was mystified ... then he understood. It astonishment, staggered and almost fell. But they had was Chung's talent: he was a sympathetic seen, both of them: 14 15 tracker, a locator. Following the Bodescu affair Harry lan Goodly came in with a pair of late arrivals: another Keogh had stayed here at E-Branch HQ for a month, esper and the Branch's Minister Responsible. The filling in the blank spaces. For a time he'd even Minister was in his mid-forties, young for his job, but considered taking on the position of Head of Branch. But had a mind sharp as a knife. He was small and dapper, with the loss of his wife and son, the Necroscope's world with keen blue eyes, and dark hair brushed back and had collapsed and he'd moved on, become a recluse up plastered down. His blue suit was fashionable in the in Scotland. The hairbrush had been his, one of several Corridors of Power; somehow his dress as a whole items he'd left behind. marked him as a person of class. In no way psychically 'I've kept it all this time, since I was first recruited into talented, still the Minister was Branch; he too had felt the the Branch,' Chung now explained to the other espers as call - something had lured him here -until a moment ago, they gathered round. This and one or two other pieces when it had stopped. which were his. Six months ago, when the Russians While Trask told the Minister what had happened, reported Harry's escape through the Perchorsk Gate, I Goodly fetched coffee. Then for an hour, two, the entire took out his things and tried to locate him. I mean, I group sat around and remembered Harry. They said very obviously couldn't locate him, but it was just the same as little but were satisfied just to be there. And despite that when Jazz Simmons went through: I knew that Harry they should be jubilant, they weren't. And for all that a wasn't here, not in this world, but he wasn't dead either. great plague had passed them by, most of them felt they'd He was in Starside.' lost a friend. 'And now?' It was Anna Marie English, worrying for David Chung had put Harry's brush in his pocket; her world, for herself. every now and then he would reach in and touch it with Chung shook his head. 'Now he isn't.' his fingertips. But it was just a brush now, wood and 'Not in Starside?' one of the younger espers gasped. glue and bristle, inanimate, without being. 'You mean he's come back? He's here?' And that's how it would stay for sixteen long years ... Again Chung shook his head, showed them the brush in his hand. 'This piece of wood, these few bristles, A fortnight later Zek Foener called from her Greek meant something, told me something. They told me that island home in Zante. She'd put it off until it was the Necroscope was alive; if not here, alive somewhere. unbearable, but in the end had to speak to Trask. 'Are we Only let me pick up this brush or Harry's other things, friends again, Ben?' and I knew it. Now ... it's just a hairbrush, no longer For all that she couldn't see him, he nodded and alive. And neither is Harry Keogh. He died a few smiled. He knew that Zek would sense it, for she was a moments ago, somewhere. And we all saw it.' powerful telepath. 'After that job we did on Janos 'Harry's dead.' Ben Trask made no bones of it. 'What Ferenczy's creatures in the Med? We'll always be friends, we've just witnessed was him. Somehow, he found a Zek.' way to let us know, give us peace of mind. That's how I 'Despite that I helped him in the end?' Her voice was see it, anyway.' 16 17 right enough. The Perchorsk Gate worries me, and the a little distorted by the line but her anxiety was real resurgence of one of the Danube's tributaries near Radu- enough. Trask's talent was working for him, so that her jevac in Romania. They all worry me, for they're all sincerity was as tangible as the steady beat of his own routes into this world from the world of the vampires.' heart. 'But they're covered now, surely?' He shrugged, which she would also sense, and said, 'Harry Junior isn't.' 'You're not the only one who helped Harry, Zek.' And now it was Trask's turn to sense the shake of a 'You, too? I somehow thought you would.' head. 'He won't be coming back,' Zek told him. 'He was 'I took a chance,' he told her. 'If it had gone the other Wamphyri, yes, but he was different. As different as the way .. . I could have ended up the biggest traitor Lady Karen. As different as his father. He fought for his mankind has ever known! By now there might have territory on Starside, and he'll stay there and keep it. He been a new world order.' battled with the vampires, Ben, destroyed them, and to 'I know. I thought much the same thing. But it was my knowledge he didn't create one out of himself. He Harry, after all.' kept no thralls, no lieutenants, no vampire lovers. Just 'Half of it was, anyway,' Trask answered. friends. But they did love him, even as much as the Great 'Actually, he died six, seven months ago,' she said. Majority loved his father.' 'What?' She'd taken Trask by surprise. She had reassured him. 'Zek, I know you've turned me 'He was dead to us the moment he went through the down before,' he said, 'but I really think you and Jazz Perchorsk Gate,' she explained. 'Or as good as. There should come over here some time. Be our guests and was no way we were ever going to see him again. He'd stay in London a while at our expense, and tell us your used both of the Gates, the one in the Urals and the one story in full. No, you don't owe us anything, neither one in Romania. He couldn't come back; the grey holes of you. But you said it yourself: we're friends. And the would reject him.' pair of you have such a lot of information locked in your Trask had been happy to hear her voice, talk to Zek, heads: about Starside, the Wamphyri, even things about but suddenly his mood was grim. She'd brought Harry Keogh and his son, that only you know. The something up that he didn't like to think about. 'That's world's improving, Zek - not by leaps and bounds, not true as far as it goes,' he said, 'but his son used a yet - but who knows ... maybe you can help it along the different route. Harry had considered himself the way? Or if not help it, protect it at least.' master of the Mobius Continuum, but in fact he was a And before she could answer him, 'I mean, it's not like novice. Those are his words, not mine. Harry Junior it used to be, Zek, not any more. You were used, you and was the real master. But if anyone knows that, you do: Jazz both - oh, and too many others - by Russia's E- it's how he brought you and Jazz out of that place back Branch, and by ours, too. But lessons were learned and it here.' isn't like that any more. We are learning all the time. I've There was a pause before she answered. 'The Dweller thought about it a lot, and it's as if still worries you, right?' The Dweller?' Trask frowned. But in the next moment: 'Oh, yes, you mean Harry Junior. He worries me, 18 19 causes and ideologies collapse and others spring into everything the Necroscope touched upon has been being. But establishments are wont to continue, if only improved and changed forever. Before he'd even because they are established. discovered the Mobius Continuum, he had to use Cold wars had come and gone; hot ones, too, however Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin to get into East Germany brief, localized; the world's Secret Services were always in and talk to Mobius in his Leipzig grave. And where's the demand. Even during periods of intense perestroika and checkpoint now, eh? As for Romania . . . Do you see what glasnost (perhaps especially through such periods), that I mean, Zek? It's as if mankind has turned over a new most esoteric of all services, E-Branch, had gone on, with leaf, and all since Harry came along, or since he left us. Ben Trask continuing as Head of Branch. While some of But should we be surprised, really? I remember Harry his agents were no more and others had been recruited to once said, "There are a great many talents among the take their places, the organization itself was an extremely dead, and they have their ways of using them." But it was successful establishment. There would always be work him who showed them how to talk to each other, for the Branch, and if ever that should change ... the truth connecting them up in their graves. Since then - just look of it was that the government of the day probably around the world. wouldn't know what to do with the Branch's esoteric 'Are they responsible, the teeming dead? Who knows talents if they were disbanded. At least this way the espers what they've achieved, or how they did it? Communism is could be seen to be working for the common good. on its last legs, a dismal failure, and the world's a safer As for the current state of the world: place. After we send the rest of our false ideological gods Communist China was slipping fast on the worn-down packing, then maybe we can start over: a grand heels of Russia into a bog of stagnation and economic restructuring, the ecology of Mother Earth herself. Right decay, and the USSR itself was much less unified. now the world is safer, but it's still not safe enough. Internally, Russia was still recovering from seventy years Could you and Jazz help make it just a little bit safer, of self-inflicted wounds, but its occasional haemorrhages Zek? That's what I want you to think about. If not for me, were all on the inside now, and issued from vastly reduced for Harry. I mean, don't you reckon it's worth finishing lesions. There was no longer even a remote threat of global the job that he started?' conflict; the last remaining Superpower, the USA, was That's cheating, Ben,' she told him. ultimately potent and alert, as were her allies. But more 'Well, think about it anyway.' importantly, theirs was a generally benign alliance. And Later, she did think about it. Zek and Jazz both. But just as Ben Trask had once forecast, the world was a they didn't go to London. It would take a long time for much safer place now; so much so that it had become a their wounds to heal, a long time before they would fad among political and historical commentators to forgive the world's ESP-Branches ... attempt to identify the turning point and name the prime factors and movers: While sixteen years isn't a long time in the great scheme The microchip; Lech Walesa; giant technological of things, still changes do occur. People, faces, places change; governments and organizations come and go; 21 20 spin-offs from the space race and the Star Wars sudden flow of adrenaline. 'David?' he said, making it a programme; spies in the sky; Chernobyl; the total question. collapse of European Communism; President Reagan, Chung answered with a grim nod, simply that, and Prime Minister Thatcher, and to some extent Premier whisked him into the elevator. But as the doors slid shut Gorbachev; the war in the Gulf, where the entire world on them and they were alone, he uttered those words had watched with fascination, astonishment, and more which Trask had most dreaded to hear: 'He's back.' than a little horror as uninspired warriors with outmoded, Trask didn't want to believe it. 'He?' he husked, outgunned weapons were mown down under the knowing full well who he must be, the only one he could previously unimaginable onslaught of outraged passions be. 'Harry?' and superior technology. Chung nodded, shrugged helplessly, seemed lost for And through all of this, no one except perhaps a words. 'Something of him,' he answered at last, 'who or handful of E-Branch members remembered Harry Keogh, whatever he is now. But yes, Ben, I'm talking about Necroscope, or attributed anything of the current world Harry. Something of Harry Keogh has come back to us order to his works. And other than that same small ..." handful, no one credited the Great Majority, the teeming dead, with even the smallest part in it. Which was the way things stood on that Monday morning in January 2006 when Trask arrived at E-Branch HQ in the heart of London, and found David Chung prowling to and fro in the foyer with a cellphone, waiting for him. Except it wasn't the cellphone which brought Trask up short as he entered the building but the look on Chung's face, and what he was holding in his other hand: an old hairbrush. Harry Keogh's old hairbrush ... Before Trask saw that, however, he recognized Chung's urgency and commenced to say, 'Sorry, David, my earphone is on the blink. And anyway there's so much interference these days a man can't even think, let alone speak! Is there a problem? Were you trying to ... contact... me?' By then he'd seen the hairbrush and jerked to a halt. The occurrences of that night sixteen years ago had all come rushing back in a flood of vivid memories, and the beat of Trask's heart had picked up speed to match the 22 Branch HQ but made no great show of it - not yet. Let it suffice that the hotel had been earmarked and was a II target; in the unlikely event of global conflict it would be an early casualty, simply because it gave the West too Harry's Room much of an edge. This was of small concern: since the end of World War Two inner London itself had been a target, as were all centres of government, finance, and commerce worldwide, not to mention a thousand military establishments. And for that matter, so were the Russian and Chinese ESP- From the hotel manager's point of view, E-Branch didn't agencies targets, including Soviet HQ on Protze Prospekt even exist. He occasionally forgot that the hotel had a in Moscow, next door to the State Biological Research top storey; which wasn't strange, for he'd never seen it. Laboratories. Also the Soviet 'listening' cell in Mogocha The occupants of that unknown uppermost level had near the Chinese border, where a team of telepaths kept an their own elevator situated at the rear of the building, eye (or an ear) on the Yellow Peril; and likewise the private stairs also at the rear, even their own fire escape. Chinese outfit itself on Kwijiang Avenue, Chungking. Indeed, 'they' owned the top floor, and so fell entirely The commencement of World War Three would be a hot outside the hotel's sphere of management and operation. time for espers, which was as good a reason as any why As to who 'they' were: international entrepreneurs, or such agencies should work for its prevention. And so to so the hotel manager had been given to understand; nor all intents and purposes, perestroika and glasnost were was he alone in his ignorance. For from the outside still very much the order of the day. looking in, very few would suspect that the building in Which was why it came as no surprise to Trask when toto was anything other than it purported to be: an hotel. Chung told him, 'Our "friends" on Protze Prospekt have Which was exactly the guise or aspect, or lack of such, confirmed it: something has come through the Perchorsk which 'they' wished to convey. And so, except to its Gate. They've got it trapped there and want our help with members, and to a select core of Very Important Persons it - urgently.' He used the term 'friends' loosely; the in the Corridors of Power, who could be numbered on British and Soviet E-Branches had never been more than the fingers of one hand - only one of which, the Minister wary adversaries. In fact the Necroscope in his time had Responsible, knew the actual location of E-Branch HQ - twice pared 'the Opposition' down to the bone. But ever the Branch simply did not exist. since the Chernobyl disaster, the Russians had been far Yet paradoxically E-Branch's existence and indeed its less reluctant to ask for outside help. They'd asked for it location were known of elsewhere in the world, to one not only with that horror but also with the organization at least and probably more than one. The decommissioning and mothballing of a dozen more Soviet equivalent knew of it certainly, and possibly outdated, outmoded and positively lethal China's mindspy organization too. They knew about E- 24 25 nuclear reactors, and for ten years now the West had been helping them dispose of the rest of their seemingly endless toxic-waste junkyards. For Earth's sake, if for no other good reason. Harry's Room As the elevator doors hissed open, letting them out into the main corridor, Trask said, 'I think you'd better Trask frowned again, and said: 'You know, I don't start at the beginning. Let me see the whole picture. think I've ever been in there? Well, not since Harry's Also, let's have every available hand in on it. The Duty time, anyway.' He looked at Chung and saw that he was Officer, espers doing paperwork, administration: the suddenly pale; his mouth was tight and his slanted eyes whole shoot.' were blinking rapidly. 'David?' But Chung had anticipated him. They're waiting for us The other shook his head. 'It's nothing. Just this room, in the Ops room. But only Millie Cleary knows what it's I think. You've never been in there? Well, you're not about. She was Duty Officer last night and took the call alone. The Necroscope used it for a while, since when from Moscow just an hour ago. As for myself: I couldn't . . . " He shrugged. The room housed a computer terminal sleep and came in early. Then, passing Harry's room, I for eight years, until we refitted. In fact the old machine . . . I sort of felt it. By which time the head of Soviet E- is still in there, gathering dust. Then the room fell into Branch had been on the blower asking to speak to you.' disuse, and no one seems to have had any use for it at 'Harry's room?' Trask frowned. all! But now . . . I find myself wondering if it doesn't go They were heading down the corridor towards the Ops deeper than that? I mean, it's always cold in that room, room. Chung took Trask's elbow and brought him to a Ben. All of the espers feel it: it has an aura. The room halt, looked over the other's shoulder at a door behind itself doesn't seem to want anyone; it doesn't want to be him and nodded. 'Harry's room, yes,' he said. The messed with.' Chung stared hard at Trask. 'Haven't you expression on his face was curious, questioning. felt it too?' Then Trask remembered. When Harry Keogh stayed Trask looked blank. 'I don't think I've even noticed the here after the Bodescu affair, they'd given him a room of room,' he said. 'I mean, I have noticed it - the name plate his own. Indeed the Necroscope had literally lived here, and all - but it hasn't made any impression. It's just a however briefly, until his wife's problem had become place I've lived with every day of my life all these years, apparent. That had been ... what? A quarter century ago? without really seeing it.' And eight years after that he had been debriefed here, 'That's exactly what I mean,' Chung answered. 'And all after his return from Starside. God, the passage of time: it of the others say the same thing. Someone stuck that plate made Trask feel old! Who was he kidding? Well past fifty on the door God knows how long ago and since then it's he was getting old, and too fast! been Harry's room and that's all. But ever since he He turned and looked at the door, which had its own returned to Starside . . . we might have forgotten Harry, or faded plastic name plate: tried to, but it's like this room hasn't.' A phrase the Necroscope had used came back to Trask, 'His last vestige on Earth?' Chung shrugged. 'Something like that.' 26 27 Trask nodded and said, 'We'll look into it later. First I me it just can't be. Which means it has to be something have to know what's been happening in Perchorsk.' like him, something of him.' Trask took it up again. 'In a minute or two I'll be talking Waiting for Trask and Chung in the large Operations to Turkur Tzonov, the Opposition's top man. We know room, one half of which was an auditorium, a small group what his talent is: face to face, he reads minds - but very of espers occupied seats in the lower tier facing the stage accurately! He'll want to speak to me on-screen, so I can and podium. As the Head of Branch entered, the low only tell him the truth. That squares things up, because murmur of their voices reached out to him for a moment. Turkur knows my talent and that he can't lie to me either! Then the noise fell away, and showing their respect, they It's why the handful of conversations we've had in the past stood up. Trask waved them back into their seats, climbed have always seemed tentative, lumbering, awkward things. steps up onto the stage with Chung following on behind. And in all probability, this one, too. Right now: it looks To one side of the podium, a table and chairs faced the like the Opposition will be asking for our help. Before that audience. The two men seated themselves and Trask went I want your ideas, want to know what we'll be dealing with straight into it: if we offer our assistance. Lately, we haven't had too much 'Being who and what you are, you probably know as on our plate. Nothing special, anyway. Well, with the much as I do about what's going on. Briefly: something exception of the Nightmare Zone. So maybe we're all just has come through into Perchorsk from Starside. Now, a wee bit rusty where the really important stuff is we're each and every one cm f a i t with the problem at concerned. This could be just the opportunity we need to Perchorsk, so it's no wonder our "colleagues" over there get our various talents out of neutral.' seem to have a flap on. Anything that comes through the He looked at their faces looking back at him: Millicent Gate has to be highly suspect. Except this is more so, Cleary, who had taken the call from Moscow. Of all E- because David here tells me it's Harry Keogh .. .' Branch's agents, Trask probably related most to Millie; he '... Something of the Necroscope,' Chung cut into their sympathized with her. Telepathy was her talent, and it gasps and whispers. 'Something with powerful was also her curse. She'd stayed single, as had most of the connections. We know Harry was — well, changing -but espers; but in any case they were already married - to the he would have to be changed completely to come back Branch. The job was one reason she was still single, through the Gate. Grey holes don't do return tickets. Once anyway, and the other was her mind-reading. through, that's it: there's no way back. Except maybe For as Millie's telepathy had matured along with her through the other Gate, into an underground river which body, so all thoughts of young love, marriage, and rises again into the Danube. But this thing has come children had flown out of the window. What, be a telepath through into Perchorsk. Also, Harry Keogh is dead; we all and know your lover's every thought? Even the bad saw him die that time sixteen years ago! Or was he thoughts, which we all have from time to time? And if simply undead? No, for he was already that before he kids should come along, perhaps pass the 'talent' on to went through the Gate. So . . . while my talent tells me them? No way, for just exactly like Trask himself, Millie it's Harry, my reasoning tells had learned that for every basically pure mind 28 29 out there, there were also the tainted ones, and for far too Trask and Chung came back down off the dais, many of those there were totally corrupt minds, and that followed the other espers into the Ops section where they at the very limits of the human spectrum there were switched on table screens and illuminated walls. As others so filled with acid that they ate inwards into shutters whirred into position covering the windows, so themselves and outwards into the world in general. She the room lit up; suddenly it took on a sort of cold, knew what was out there, for it was her job to look into technological life of its own. On one large wall screen the such minds. Sometimes even the worst of them. Earth was shown in flat, stereographic projection, with Although she was a woman of thirty-eight now, Trask colours which were lifelike as seen from space. still thought of her as his kid sister. There'd been a sort of Anna Marie English went to the screen, paused and girl-next-door freshness about her, which galvanized his looked at the other espers, especially Trask. Her unlovely protective urges: a shyness and all-too-rare innocence; face was tinged blue in the glare of the projection, and her which at the same time permitted her to flash her green eyes were invisible behind the reflective sheen of her eyes, wrinkle her pretty nose, toss her head of copper hair spectacles. The ecopath's voice was a rasp as she asked of and get really mad if necessary. Occasionally it was, and no one in particular, 'Is our world under threat?' She she'd never failed to stand up for her principles. Millie shrugged and turned to the screen. 'I can only offer my had retained all of these qualities. And somehow, despite opinion.' the job, she'd managed to hold on to something of her The next step was one which everyone present innocence, too. understood well enough: sympathetic perception. She 'Millie,' Trask said, 'did you pick up anything from reached up and placed a trembling right hand over a your conversation with Tzonov?' mountainous region of Russia, the Urals some four She shook her head. 'He sounded cool, superior, almost hundred miles north of Sverdlovsk. And closing her eyes, disdainful. He wasn't on-screen, just a voice on the line. If she held her breath and leaned her physical and I had been able to see him, maybe - and maybe not. There metaphysical weight on that one sensitive extension of was a lot of static. I mean, mental static.' herself. Several long seconds ticked by, and as many Trask said, There would be.' He rubbed his chin and quiet heartbeats, before she straightened up, withdrew her scanned the other faces: hand and faced her colleagues again. Anna Marie English. At twenty-four she had looked 'Well?' Trask gave voice to all of their anxieties. fifty. And amazingly, now that she was forty she still She took a deep breath and said, 'Perchorsk reads to me looked fifty! It said a lot for Mother Earth. Ecologically just exactly the way it did the last time I scanned it - aware, English's 'disease' had been held in abeyance by menacing! The place itself is . .. well, a dire threat, the planet's partial recovery. She would be as good a obviously. But I detected nothing of any additional place as any to start. Trask nodded his intention; a nod hazard. I did sense something new, however. Something ... which she returned, however imperceptibly, before warm? In my opinion: if something, someone, has come answering, 'Can we step through into Ops? Maybe use the through to our side, he, she, or it is harmless to our world, screens and charts?' maybe even benevolent.' 30 31 Trask sighed. Like everyone else, he'd been holding 'And that's it?' his breath. He looked around. Who else could he use? 'Heavily involved,' Goodly nodded. 'I see ... interesting David Chung was standing close to him, but he shook times ahead.' He held up a hand. 'But don't ask me to his head. 'I can only tell you what I've already told you: it look any deeper than that, Ben. Not yet. It's never safe, feels like the Necroscope to me. Like him, but that's all.' and right now it isn't necessary.' The precog Guy Teale had taken over Duty Officer Again Trask's sigh, this time of frustration. 'Right,' from Millicent Cleary. As the group of espers had he said. 'No more guesswork, however informed. It's entered the Ops area, Teale had been summoned to duty time we knew for sure. I'm going to speak to Tzonov. I by his pager, which was locked into Branch would prefer all of you off-screen, however, so if you communications. Now he returned and said, 'It's the don't mind ...?' Opposition, Turkur Tzonov again. Still wanting to speak As they moved out of range, Trask made himself to you, sir.' He looked at Trask. 'I patched him through comfortable in a black, padded swivel chair before a to the screen in here. When you're ready?' large flat screen on a central console. But as Teale made 'He can wait a minute more,' Trask growled. But he to switch on the televiewer: knew that if Tzonov was that impatient, this was at least 'Wait!' Trask stopped him. 'I want you to cover me, as important as he suspected it to be. He looked at the all of you. Let's play the Opposition at their own game others gathered round him. lan Goodly seemed on the and have some mental static around here. Tzonov's a point of saying something. Knowing how reluctant damn fine, an extraordinary, mentalist. If I'm not 'hunchmen' usually are to air their talents, Trask prompted covered he'll be able to read things in my head that even him, 'lan?' I don't know are there!' 'I was waiting until Guy got back,' the gangling, And as they shielded him with the combined energy cadaverous esper answered. 'Being likeminded, so to of their minds, Teale switched on. speak - both of us being precogs, prognosticators - I'm The signal from Moscow unscrambled itself onto the interested to get a second opinion.' opaque screen; a fuzzy hi-tech background blinked into 'Your own opinion will do for starters,' Trask told him. being, while in the foreground sharp features under a Goodly shuffled uncomfortably, then shrugged. 'We're high-domed, totally bald head faced Trask and held him going to be involved,' he finally said. Trask turned with penetrating eyes. He stared back as the picture gained towards Teale. stability and clear, almost better-than-life contrast. On- 'Likewise,' said the other. 'Who or whatever it is screen the Russian's face was certainly larger than life: in that's come through -' He frowned and paused. '- No, order to make himself that much more impressive, he'd whoever it is, he needs our help.' given his screen extra amplification. Which was 'He?' scarcely necessary. The looks of the man were ... 'That's my guess,' Teale answered. 'Educated, as startling. But Ben Trask was a hard man to intimidate. always.' It's not easy to impress a human lie-detector, a man who will instantly recognize even the most 32 33 which was so in keeping with his other features as to remote distortion or elaboration. It was the reason Trask make it appear that hair was never intended. Certainly had always liked and been impressed by Harry Keogh; his baldness wasn't a sign of ill-health or premature not so much by the Necroscope's awesome powers but by aging; the broad bronze dome of his head glowed with his humility, and his truth. vitality to match the flesh of his face, where the only Truth, Mr Trask?' Tzonov raised his right eyebrow. anomaly lay in the orbits of Tzonov's eyes. Deep-sunken 'But there you have the advantage. As long as your and dark, their hollows seemed bruised from long hours of agents keep you covered, you can lie to your heart's study or implacable concentration. Trask knew it was a content and remain hidden in their static. As for myself, I symptom of the man's telepathy. Tzonov's nose was have no such safeguard. Nor do I need one, not on this sharply hooked, which despite his light grey eyes might occasion. If I wanted to play games . .. well, I'm sure you mark him as an Arab; except Trask suspected it had been know I have enough clever chessmen, without my own broken in an accident or a fight. Probably the latter, for personal involvement. So there we have it: I am here to the head of Russia's E-Branch was a devotee of the ask a favour of you, not to lie to you or spy on you.' martial arts. His mouth was well-fleshed if a little wide, Tzonov's voice - well-modulated and without accent, and above a chin which was strong and square. His cheeks to all intents and purposes lacking in emotion - were very slightly hollow, and his small, pointed ears lay nevertheless contained the merest suggestion of a sneer. flat to his head. The picture overall was of a too-perfect Trask smiled back, however tightly. 'For someone who symmetry, where the left and right halves of the Russian's protests my advantage over his own "innocence", you face seemed mirror images. In the majority of people this picked that out of my mind easily enough, Tzonov. would be a disadvantage, Trask thought: the physical Naturally I'm concerned about the truth; I always have attractions of a face, its 'good looks', are normally been and always will be. It happens to be my talent.' defined by imperfections of balance. Turkur Tzonov to While he answered, he studied the other's face. the contrary: paradoxically, he was a very attractive man. Turkur Tzonov was part-Turk, part-Mongol, all man. The secret lay in the eyes, which were a fascination unto Without question he was an 'Alpha' male, a leader, an themselves. Trask could well understand the Branch's outstanding mind housed in an athlete's body. His grey profile of this man, which detailed a long string of eyes were the sort that could look at and into a man, or beautiful and intelligent female companions. None of through him if the mind behind them considered him of them had voiced any complaint when he moved on; they little or no importance. It was a measure of Trask's had all remained 'loyal' to him in their various ways. Trask stature that Tzonov's eyes looked at him, and not without wondered if it were true loyalty, or simply that Tzonov respect. knew too much about them. How could any woman The Russian's eyebrows were slim as lines pencilled speak out against a man who knows every detail of her on paper; upwards-slanting, they were silver-blond against pastlife? Only a stupid or insensitive or entirely innocent the tanned, sharp-etched ridges of his brows. From the woman would dare, none of which were Tzonov's sort. eyebrows up he was completely hairless, 35 34 And now those near-hypnotic eyes - those telepathic well-deserved, Ben. That is precisely what I think. It's at eyes of Turkur Tzonov - were intent upon Trask as the least a possibility. Between us we control talents with two heads of British and Soviet ESP-Intelligence which to combat any such incursion; but until we know measured each other across a distance of more than what the threat is, or that it definitely exists ...' He let his fifteen hundred miles. words taper off. Trask's appraisal of the other had taken moments; 'You haven't been able to fathom him, then?' Trask possibly the Russian had read something of it in his took it that Guy Teale had been correct: what had come mind; in any case there had been nothing there he could through the Perchorsk Gate was a man. possibly object to. And if there had been, well he was the 'As yet we're not wholly in a position to fathom him, one who was asking for help. Trask nodded. 'So you have no,1 Tzonov said. 'Rather, he is not in a position to be a problem, Turkur ... er, do you mind if I use your first fathomed.' name? I know you're still fond of the term "Comrade" 'Can you explain that?' over there, but we're hardly that.' 'We're holding him within the Gate,' Tzonov obliged. 'Turkur, by all means,' the other shrugged and permitted 'At our end, just beyond the Perchorsk threshold. What? himself the ghost of a smile. 'As for "Comrade": it's true But do you think we've learned nothing from the lessons of our organizations have had their differences in the past, the past? That we would simply let such a creature in Mr Trask - or should that be Ben? But that is history and without first considering our actions? A thing -possibly a this is now, and the future is ... oh, a very big place! In a man, which at least has the looks and present shape of a world scrutinized by alien intelligences, perhaps even man - from the parallel dimension of the Wamphyri?' under the threat of attack, we wouldn't find it so difficult 'Holding him?' Trask couldn't help but frown. Since to be Comrades. Am I right?' that time all those years ago when Harry Keogh had gone His argument and the way he presented it were through the Gate, E-Branch had lost much of its interest disarming, especially since Trask knew what he was in Perchorsk. It had been taken for granted that the talking about. Perhaps Trask knew even more than Russians were adequately equipped to close the place Tzonov thought. For instance, he knew or suspected that down. Or if not that, certainly to deal with whatever might the - intruder? - from the other side was a man. And now come through. there might be a way to confirm his suspicions. 'Ah!' said Tzonov, nodding. And for the first time 'Is that what you think?' he said. That your visitor is a during their conversation he seemed surprised, and spy for the Wamphyri? Their advance guard, as it were? pleased. 'You don't know of the - precautions - which Someone working for Harry Keogh, perhaps?' we've taken at Perchorsk.' If his words caught the other off guard there was little 'We've always assumed you sealed the place up,' Trask outward sign of it: a single blink, and the almost told him. 'Permanently. Any responsible authority would imperceptible narrowing of cool grey eyes. Then have seen to it at once.' Tzonov's answer. The reputation of your Branch is That had been tried before,' Tzonov answered with a 36 37 grim smile, 'before my time. But do you know, I'm told harmless, or much more than a man and a monstrous that it was far better to be in Perchorsk and living in fear, threat. As I am sure you're aware, your talent is unique than out of that place and not knowing what was going and we have nothing like you. Then there are your on! And I believe it, for since then we've had the prognosticators - your "hunchmen" - Teale and Goodly. experience of an entirely separate but analogous We too have a man who reads the future, our own comparison. I refer to Chernobyl, of course. You may precog, of course. Alas his talent is ...' Tzonov shrugged, recall that the Sarcophagus was a sealed unit, too - until '... middling at best. And I'm sure you're aware of that, they opened it up again . . . and again! But the place is too. But your men are the best! At the first sign of still alive and dangerous, and will continue to be for a danger, they'd recognize it immediately. Indeed, it is their long time to come. Which is why they must now open it nature to know well in advance.' yet again, a third time, in order to be certain they know It was Trask's thought to ask: What is it about this man what's happening. Well, Perchorsk was the same: we had or thing that interests you? Why don't you just destroy it to know what was happening.' He paused, and in a out of hand? What do you hope to gain from studying it? moment continued, 'We've taken precautions, of course. But if he asked those questions and Tzonov chose to lie or Such as these safeguards are, they have allowed us to obfuscate ... their new found rapport could be broken, contain this most recent visitor at our end of the Gate. So and Trask knew now that he needed the cooperation of that we now have a choice: we can study him, if it's at all the Russian telepath as much as he himself was needed. possible, or simply destroy him out of hand. I would Of course he did, for if David Chung was correct and the prefer to study him.' visitor was in some way revenant of Harry Keogh ... 'And you want to let us in on it?' Trask kept his face 'If you won't help us and we're obliged to work on this expressionless. That would seem very big of you, if I alone,' (it was as if Tzonov had got inside Trask's head, didn't already know that you can't handle it on your own.' but Trask prayed that he hadn't), 'and if there's any profit It was so, he knew; also that everything Tzonov had told in it . . . then we alone reap the benefits. Can you really him was the absolute truth. The needle on Trask's mental afford to refuse us? I should think you'd jump at the lie-detector hadn't so much as wavered. 'But what you chance to help!' haven't yet told me is the sort of help you expect from He was right. If the visitor was like or 'of Harry, he us. How about it, Turkur? What is it we've got that you must never be allowed to fall so easily into the need?' Opposition's hands. What a weapon they'd make of him! 'Several things,' the other accepted his reading, made Before Trask let that happen, and if it should be no pointless attempt to deny the accuracy of Trask's necessary, why he'd kill the visitor himself! deductions. 'Your Branch has a wealth of experience in 'Very well,' he nodded, 'you shall have our such matters, for one thing. Not to mention a diversity of cooperation. But this is a busy time, Turkur, and if we're ESP talents. You yourself would be invaluable, Ben. to work together in Perchorsk there are things I have to Your ability to look at what we've got here and know the see to here first. I'll get my Duty Officer to phone you tr u th of it: whether our visitor is merely a man and 38 39 thing and Harry Keogh.' back, within the hour, to make the necessary 'And that's it?' arrangements.' 'More or less.' To phone me?' Tzonov raised his customary eyebrow. Trask shook his head. 'You're one of our best, David, 'Is it not better to talk face to face?' and I know you have enough to do right here. Also, I Trask smiled. The walls of trust are built by degrees, have to think of the Branch. If anything were to happen my friend. First pebbles, later boulders.' to us out there ... well, the organization would be The Russian nodded. 'And they are just as easily weakened enough without losing you, too. Still, it's not tumbled. Remove a pebble, and the whole wall breaks. my decision entirely; I've just been speaking to the That is one of our sayings.' Minister Responsible. He's okayed it, however 'Exactly,' Trask answered. reluctantly, but just for the two of us. So I'm afraid 'Very well,' Tzonov agreed. 'My Duty Officer will stand that's that. Incidentally, you'll be in the chair while I'm by for your Duty Officer's call, for I too have things to away. And if anything was to happen to us in put in order. Meanwhile, I shall look forward to working Perchorsk, you'd most likely stay in the chair. So you with you and yours.' His face disappeared from the see: there's no way we can also jeopardize the life of screen and was replaced by white dazzle ... the heir apparent!' 'Just the two of us,' Trask spoke to his precogs. 'Myself Chung remained silent, standing there before Trask's and one of you two. The flip of a coin.' He held a penny, desk, until the Head of Branch felt obliged to ask, 'Was his good-luck piece of pre-decimal coinage, between there something else?' thumb and finger. Chung looked embarrassed. 'Don't you think it's possible lan Goodly shook his head; his high-pitched voice you made a mistake when you were talking to Tzonov belied his mournful expression as he answered, 'No need on-screen?' for that, Ben. We already know.' 'In what way?' Guy Teale pulled a wry face. 'I'm staying here. That's 'When you asked him if he thought his visitor at how we see it, anyway.' Perchorsk might be a spy for the Wamphyri, possibly Trask shrugged and said to Goodly, Then you'd better working for Harry? Up until then Harry Keogh hadn't get your things together. It won't be long.' His advice been mentioned. It seemed to me an error, to bring up wasn't necessary, but between them the espers kept their the question of the Necroscope.' conversations as near normal as possible. As the precogs Trask shook his head. 'I only mentioned him by name, left his office, Trask saw David Chung waiting in the not by talent. I deliberately avoided even thinking of corridor and called him in. Harry's talents. But you see, you'd already put thoughts of 'David?' Harry into my head. They were in there, fresh after Td like to come with you.' sixteen years. Tzonov is possibly the world's finest 'You think you'd be of use?' telepath: his eyes look right into your mind. So even 'I'm fascinated to know the connection between this covered by all that static, I still wasn't sure he 40 41 wouldn't read something. The easy way out was to years' service to the Branch she had never had the mention Harry, but slightly out of context. That way, slightest idea what it was all about, except that its simple Tzonov would "know" what I thought he thought and rules were for obeying and its people not for talking look no further. You see, David, through you we're about. Indeed, Mrs Wills had been chosen for her reasonably certain that something of Harry Keogh has singular lack of curiosity. Now her face lit up ruddily as come back into our world. But the Opposition knows she beamed first at Trask, then Chung: two of the nothing of that, not yet.' He smiled. 'It's just one more gentlemen 'what she did for'. reason why I won't take you east with us. You're much Finally Trask's question got through to her. 'What, Mr too valuable right where you are.' 'Arry's room, sir? Cold, did yer say? Can't say I've noticed He stood up and saw Chung to the door. Out there, the it meself. But the 'eating's working, all right!' long central corridor was empty now, silent. Chung said, Concerned, she followed them in. At the back there 'What about Harry's room?' was a recess with a sliding door, containing a wash basin, Trask nodded. 'It can't hurt to look inside. What was shower, and toilet. In front ... just a small overnight that you said about it? Always cold in there?' bedroom, maybe four paces by five, from the days when As they walked down the corridor and paused at the the top floor, too, had belonged to the hotel. The floor door in question, Chung answered, 'Cold, yes. Always. space along one wall was occupied by an obsolete The heating is on but the room stays cold.' He reached for computer console, with a chair and space below for the the doorknob ... operator's feet, plus a second swivel chair and ample ... And the door opened! work surface. In a corner, a small wardrobe stood open; it Both men gasped and started, then breathed mutual was equipped with coat hangers, and shelving to one side. sighs of relief, glancing at each other sheepishly as the Chung nodded to indicate the wardrobe's interior. cleaning lady, Mrs Wills, came into the corridor. Armed 'Some of Harry's things,' he told Trask. 'A shirt of his, with her appointments - galvanized bucket, short-bladed trousers and a jacket. A bit mothy by now, I should think. squeegee, mop and dusters — she perspired freely. Plus a few other bits and pieces on the top shelf there. Sure that his shock was still registering, Trask made an The other items were left behind -' (he glanced out of the effort to cover his embarrassment. 'Well ... Mrs Wills corner of his eye at Mrs Wills, who had found a speck of doesn't look very cold,' he said. And speaking directly to dust to wipe from the computer console),'— by people we the cleaning lady, 'Mr Chung was telling me how this lost from time to time. I kept them .. . because I didn't like room always feels too cold. How do you find it?' to destroy them. As a locator, I'd used them all in my time. Mrs Wills was a short, rather stout, fiftyish Londoner. Stuff belonging to Darcy Clarke, Ken Layard, Trev Jordan. Not especially bright, she was a hard worker and had a These things formed my link with them in the field . ..' heart of gold. She was the only permanent member of As Chung talked Trask was looking into the wardrobe, staff who was in no way 'talented', and in all her fifteen but he wasn't seeing. Rather, he was feeling. And Chung was right: the room was cold. Or if not cold, 42 43 empty. Despite the computer console, the wardrobe and That did it. There may be plenty of Harrys in the world, its contents, it felt like an empty space, as if nothing was but by Trask's reckoning there could only be one Harry here. Not even Trask, Chung, and Mrs Wills. Trask felt Keogh. The Necroscope's second name had never been like an echo of himself in this room, like a shadow. He mentioned - or it shouldn't have been - in front of Mrs felt if he stood here just a little while longer he might Wills. Her knowledge of his Christian name was easy to fade into the walls and disappear forever. The place was explain: she'd been reading it five days a week, plainly psychically charged, definitely. And the cold wasn't visible on the plaque on the door. But his surname? Trask physical but metaphysical, psychological ... supernatural? glanced at Chung. Whichever, Trask shivered anyway. David Chung was thinking much the same thing as his Mrs Wills had finished with her dusting. 'There we are,' boss. Through Harry, the espers of E-Branch had learned she said, drawing Trask back into himself. 'All spick-'n- that death is not the end but a transition to incorporeality, span again. As my Jim's always saying, "Meg me love, immobility. The flesh may be weak and corruptible, but whatever yer do, just be sure yer keeps 'Arry's room mind and will go beyond that. People, when they die, do spick-'n-span." That's what my Jim always says.' not accompany their bodies into dissolution but become As she turned away Trask's jaw fell open and he one with the Great Majority; and merging into a sort of glanced at Chung. Then she'd gone back out into the limbo - a darkness where thought is the all - the minds of corridor, and the two espers were after her in a moment. the teeming dead occupy themselves naturally with 'Er, Mrs Wills.' Trask caught her by the elbow. 'Did you whatever was their passion in life. Great artists continue and, er, Jim - I mean, did you know Harry, then?' to visualize magnificent canvases, pictures they can never Her hand flew to her mouth and her eyes went wide. paint; architects plan faultless, world-spanning cities they 'Oh, my! Was I talking about Jim again? Oh, dear, I am can never build; scientists follow through the research sorry, sir! I mean, after all these years, yer'd think I'd let it they weren't able to complete in life, whose benefits can be, now wouldn't yer?' never be passed on to the living. Trask raised his eyebrows, looked mystified, waited. And Jim Wills, the cleaning lady's husband? In life he'd 'See,' she said, 'my Jim was a talker. Lord, Jim could just overflowed with words; and the one he'd loved to talk to talk! Of a night before we'd go ter sleep, he'd just talk and most of all . . . had been his wife. Was it so strange? And talk and talk! About all and everything, and nothing very how many other lonely people 'hear' their absent loved much. I used ter tell him, "Jim Wills, yer'll likely talk ones talking to them, Trask wondered? But out loud he only yerself ter death one day!" And bless him, he did. A heart said, 'What else has Jim told you, Mrs Wills?' attack, anyway. But ... well ... yer see, I was so used ter Perhaps there was a tear in the corner of her eye as she Jim's voice, that sometimes I 'ears it even now! And even looked at him, but she hid it and smiled anyway. 'Only if I never did know Mr 'Arry, whoever he is, it seems my how I should be a good girl,' she said. 'And treat others Jim must 'ave known him, or 'eard of him, anyway. Truth the way I'd expect to be treated. And remember that Jim is, my Jim says an 'ell of a lot of 'em knows - or knew - loved me, and only me, all his days.' 'Arry Keogh.' 44 45 Trask nodded. 'That's all good advice,' he said, softly. 'But I meant about Harry. What did Jim tell you about PART TWO Harry?' She shrugged and sighed. 'Not much. Just ter look Nestor's Story after his room and keep it spick-'n-span, that's all. "Meg, me love, whatever else goes ter the wall, you look after 'Arry's room," he says. And when I asks him why, he shrugs and says, "Well, yer never knows when he'll be needin' ter use it again, now does yer?'" She looked at the two espers and smiled, and the tears were gone now. 'Anyway, that's what my Jim always says ...' I Sunside Three days earlier (by Earth's chronological system), at the dawn of a long Sunside 'day', the vampire Lord Nestor had gone to earth in the forest a mile or two north of the leper colony on the fringe of Sunside's prairie belt. In fear, loathing, and great trepidation — trembling, aye, even the necromancer Lord Nestor of the Wamphyri! - he had plunged headlong through the deep dark woods, away from the gold-stained horizon where the sun rose inexorably, menacingly in the south. There in the gloom of the forest, stumbling into a stream, he had stripped naked and washed himself scrupulously clean in every part, until even his metamor- phic vampire flesh was raw, red, and broken from his furious scrubbing. And in his shrinking mind (known also to his parasite vampire, of course) one terrifying thought eclipsing all others: that he'd spent last night among Szgany lepers, watched over by lepers, tended and fed by lepers, and .. . infected, perhaps? By lepers? Leprosy: Great Bane of the Wamphyri! And Nestor had been with these stumbling, crumbling people from sundown to sunup, in their place, unconscious in one of their beds and covered by their blankets ... They'd discovered him where his crippled flyer had come down in the forest close by; they had touched him, lifted him up, taken him to their colony. Their wooden spoons had carried soup to Nestor's dribbling 49 mouth, while his lungs had breathed air which theirs Upon a time, Zahar had been Vasagi the Suck's man; had breathed out! Their bandages and healing salves now Nestor's, he had taken his necromancer master's had covered his wounded face and eyes . .. but what cognomen for his own. Lichloathe was the name that the were ointments against the curse of leprosy? And so he Wamphyri of Wrathstack had given Nestor out of respect had scrubbed his body raw, then dressed himself in his for his talent, which lay in tormenting corpses for their soiled leather clothing, and with something of his secrets. But it was not that Nestor loathed the dead, rather composure regained followed the stream east and a little that they loathed him. As for the Wamphyri: they had north. grown to respect him, perhaps even to fear him in Mainly Nestor had walked in the shallow water, however small a degree. For with Nestor, something had shaded by dense foliage along the banks. His eyes had come among them which seemed worse than dying: the been half-blinded by silver shot, and though the lepers dark and harrowing art of necromancy, by use of which an had pricked most of the tiny poison pellets out of his adept might carry vengeance even beyond death itself. It flesh, it would be a while yet before his parasite leech was an awesome talent. But torturing the dead in could heal him completely. By sticking to the water he Wrathstack was a far cry from this bed of pebbles in a avoided obstacles: he couldn't crash into things and cool dark cave. further damage himself. But always he'd been aware of So Nestor had lain there making his plans: to climb the the furnace sun's rising, however gradual, and had barrier mountains and call for Zahar, who would come for known he must find shelter before its lethal rays could him with a flyer to bear him back to the last aerie. Before strike through the trees and discover him there. then, however, a seemingly endless day and the best part And shortly, where the stream slowed, broadened out of a night had lain ahead, and Nestor would be wise to and flowed deep over its bed, in a cave under a rocky rest his mind and body both. Yet still sleep eluded him. vine-draped outcrop that jutted over the water, there In part, it was the agony of rapid metamorphic healing; Nestor had collapsed on a shingly ledge and stretched worse far, it was the terror of dreams he knew he must himself out to sleep, hopefully to regain his strength. dream: of sloughing flesh and a crumbling ruin of a man But sleep was difficult; he was not long awake following shunned and forgotten, perhaps walled-up and abandoned, a night's rest in the place of the lepers; his mind wove fretting to dust little by little in some cold, lonely Starside this way and that as he considered and reconsidered his niche or crevice. A man called Nestor. position, his chances. So he'd tossed and turned in a fever upon his pebble Actually, they were good: so long as he stayed here in bed, and as the day wore on the air had grown heavier and this cave through the hours of daylight, he would more oppressive. Beyond the low mouth of his cave, survive. At sundown, avoiding the makeshift camps of dragonflies had danced over the slow-flowing water, where Travellers, he would venture north, climb the barrier sunbeams glanced and sparkled like gold and silver fire mountains by the light of the stars, and send out a on the ripples. It had all seemed so very peaceful out mindcall through the passes in the peaks to his Lieutenant there, harmless; there had been a time in Zahar Lichloathe, once Sucksthrall. 50 51 some misty mythical past when it was quite harmless, he vague memories of pre-Wamphyri times together, at last felt sure. But now - he had fallen asleep. - Nestor could almost hear the sunlight seething like a Except his device worked better than he'd supposed, refuse pit! Only let him venture beyond the mouth of this so that even whilst sleeping the chain of thought which cave into those soft yellow rays ... they would eat him he had set in motion continued. Thus, as Nestor's body alive like the metal-molding acids of the Szgany east of rested and his metamorphic flesh worked unseen to the Great Pass, whose skills in the forging of war- repair itself, his dreaming mind recounted in vivid detail gauntlets alone kept them safe from the raids of the all of his morbid story. Wamphyri! The sunlight would kill him, reduce him to so But few men would have called it dreaming ... much smoke and stench, to tar and sticky black bones. For Nestor was a vampire, and the sun his mortal enemy. And At first it came in flashes: yet it had not always been like this. Except . . . he couldn't Nestor's near-drowning ... the burly Brad Berea fishing remember when or how it had been different! on the riverbank somewhere east of Twin Fords, and In Nestor's early days in the last aerie, towering tall saving Nestor's life when his body came drifting, head- over Starside's barren boulder plains, he had frequently down in the water. Then Brad's cabin .. . his daughter, suffered from sleeplessness. Then the place had been alien Glina, who had wanted Nestor for his body. Well, she'd to him, and full of fearsome sounds: weird sigh-ings, wanted something more than that: a man to call her own, strange laughter, and screams - a great many of those. and fill her lonely days and nights. He had been all of a Eventually he'd discovered a trick, by means of which he man, certainly ... enough for any woman. As well, might lull his jittery mind and thumping heart to sleep. It though, that she hadn't wanted a mind. was a simple device: he would try to recall to memory For Nestor had been an amnesiac. Damaged, his head details of that earlier time, before he became Wamphyri. broken, he had no memories, no past. Except a lone All a waste of effort and useless as counting goats on a voice in the back of his mind, which was wont to repeat crag, for he rarely remembered anything of his life before insistently, 'I am the Lord Nestor!' But only a notion, for those days he'd spent in the lonely home of Brad Berea, obviously he was not Wamphyri. The sun didn't harm deep in the Sunside forest. him; he ate common fare, like common men; his senses But in his cave by the gurgling stream, safe for the were less than a vampire's, indeed less than those of a moment from his terror of the lepers and the sun alike, whole man. No, it had been a fantasy, some lone this time Nestor had tried a variation on the theme. He fragment from lost times . . . Or a forecast? had attempted to recall all that had occurred since that Glina made him a man - in part, anyway - but never a night when he left the shelter of Brad Berea's cabin, to whole man. Pondering a vanished past, Nestor's mind follow the coldly glittering Northstar and seek out the was wont to wander; lacking the cohesion of memory, Wamphyri in Starside. And this time it had worked! his brain and body seemed detached, as if he lived by the Almost before Nestor could begin gathering his few will of another. Knowing Glina's flesh and having 53 52 her (or rather, being made love to by her) became the dark and took his leave of the Bereas. But trekking instinctive, an automatic thing; so that in fact there was through the gloomy heart of the forest, he was never nothing of love in it. But with blood racing in his veins alone. Like a clot of blue ice frozen and glittering over and his shaft rocking to and fro within her, passion of a the barrier mountains, the Northstar was both beacon and kind would light in his eyes, and emotion of a sort blaze companion. For he knew that the star of ill-omen shone up in his heart. But it was never love. Glina had known down not only on Sunside, but also on Starside and the that. last great aerie of the Wamphyri... And sometimes at the climax of Nestor's strange cold passion, as he jerked to a crescendo in her body, she had Towards dawn Nestor had found himself in the foothills - sensed that he would like to kill her. For then at the and in the presence of monsters/ height of their sex, his hands would leave her breasts and A pair of Wamphyri Lords had come to fight a duel on seek her throat, so that she must protect herself. Sunside, which Nestor witnessed. Wran Killglance was Sometimes, too, she would hear him speak a name: one (called Wran the Rage after his furies), and Vasagi Misha. the Suck the other. Vasagi's face was a nightmare in Misha! It had been like a curse, bitter as a wormy itself: with no mouth or chin as such, but a tapering trunk apple on his tongue. So that Glina had hated this Misha and flickering needle proboscis, like the siphon of some without even knowing her, because Nestor had known monstrous insect . .. but worse than a nightmare when and loved her. Yes, and she'd hurt him more than Glina Wran was done. For then Vasagi's face had looked like ever could. Or so Brad Berea's homely daughter the hole which is left behind when a limb is wrenched suspected ... from its socket, all bloody and dripping from its rim. Then came the night of the Wamphyri! .. . their flyers But Nestor had been more than just a witness; indeed, wafting high overhead ... the propulsors of their warriors he had been part of the fight, and had probably saved making thunder and stenches in the clear night air! But Wran's life. For in his horror of the conflict - the animal the house of Brad Berea was hidden in a forest thicket, ferocity which the enormously powerful combatants camouflaged, secret, secure. The Wamphyri passed by like displayed - Nestor had temporarily forgotten his perverse swift-fleeting clouds, heading north for the Northstar, to desire to be a 'Lord' himself; and of the two who fought, Starside across the barrier range. Wran had at first seemed the least alien ... But Nestor had seen them; he felt their weird allure; ... At first, aye. and in the back of his mind, as always, a small but Later, with the flush of a false dawn flowing like insistent voice repeating, 'I am the Lord Nestor, of the molten gold along the far southern horizon, Wran had Wamphyri!' A vampire Lord? Perhaps he had been, upon dragged Vasagi to the hillside and pegged him down to a time, and now by some freak of misfortune was await the sun's rising. And while he worked, so he changed back to a man. One way or the other, he had to questioned Nestor about his part in all this, and know. discovered his motive: that he would be Wamphyri. At That night as the house slept, Nestor crept out into that, a 54 55 grimly ironic scheme had entered Wran's mind. Here crawl, the sun was very nearly up. But there on a bluff, was one vampire about to die - Vasagi, and his leech Vasagi's flyer had waited, its spatulate head nodding this still in him - and here a Szgany youth just itching to way and that in a soughing breeze off Sunside's forests, take his place! And why not? Wran owed him that much and Nestor had known what he must do. at least. It would be such a simple thing to arrange. Making his way to the flyer, he passed close to Vasagi, It had been arranged! Wran had sent Nestor on some who still clung to life despite his hideous wounds. Then small errand, and in his absence opened Vasagi's spine the Suck had begged him to loosen the pegs which held through skin, flesh, muscle, and ribs to find and drain him fast to the hillside. For after all, Nestor already his leech. For to a vampire the blood is the life, and the possessed Vasagi's egg and would soon become heir to his best vessel from which to drink it is another vampire's flyer. So what more could he want? Surely he could parasite - preferably an enemy's! afford to spare his life, what little of it remained, and not Drained and dying, finally the Suck's leech had leave him to melt in the sun? deserted him and issued its egg. As Nestor returned, Nestor had been nai've in the ways of the Wamphyri. If Wran caught up the small, skittering, pearly spheroid his egg were a mature leech, doubtless it would have into his hand, to stare at it in grim satisfaction. He knew caused him to laugh. But with his own agonies so fresh in that if he, Wran, were a suitable vessel, then that his mind, he could scarcely bear the thought of another's. Vasagi's egg would soak like quicksilver through his And such agonies: to slump into gurgling glue, vaporize skin and inhabit him; but he already had a mature to roiling smoke and stench, and steam away to nothing, parasite leech of his own, which would devour any like a slug tossed into a campfire! And so he'd paused a intruder in a trice. moment to loosen and yank free the Suck's pegs, before Then, opening his fist to show Nestor the naked egg, carrying on towards the patiently waiting flyer. Wran had called him closer. And as if blowing a kiss, Before, there'd been a crossbow bolt transfixing the V he'd sent the thing flying into the other's gawping face! of muscle between Vasagi's neck and shoulder. Nestor It had taken nothing more than that: it was the knew, for he was the one who had put it there (Wran had quickest, easiest way to become a vampire. Not the pulled it out when he pegged Vasagi down, just for the virulent bite, which brings about lethargy, death, and pleasure it gave him). Now the ironwood bolt lay in the undeath; and not sex, which likewise transmits stuff of bloodied dust, and Nestor's empty crossbow swung at his the vampire between bodies. For in cases such as these hip. Automatically, he had taken up the bolt and clipped it the transition is only gradual. The victim will become a into its housing under the crossbow's tiller. For if he was vampire - always, invariably - but not always Wamphyri. really on his way to Starside, it would be as well to take a Ah, but when the egg itself is passed on . . . weapon along -especially now that he knew what to The melding had caused Nestor such pain as he could expect there! The crossbow should provide some security never have believed possible without experiencing it. By at least. For in all Sunside there was no finer shot than the time he had recovered strength enough to Nestor. So they 56 57 had used to say back in . . . back in . . . back where? But In Nestor's dream the past came alive with such Nestor no longer remembered. immediacy and in such vivid detail, it was as if he lived it Then he'd found Vasagi's bloodied battle gauntlet again. Indeed, as if it were happening even now: hanging by a thong from the flyer's saddle, where Wran With the reins trapped in his right hand, and gripping had' left it for him. But even then - with the deadly furnace the left-hand horn of twin pommels in the other, he used sun so close to breaching the far horizon, and just as close his knees to cling tightly to the hump of the well-rubbed to sending out its sighing, searing golden rays - still the leather saddle; and flattening himself down out of the flyer had known its would-be rider for a stranger and slipstream, he leaned a little forward into the force of the would not launch ... blast. But even lacking fear and feeling a wild ... Until the crippled Vasagi sent a mind-call winging, to exhilaration, still he hung on for dear life. The wind in his stir the beast to action: Aye, you were ever a faithful face snatched at his breath and struck cold against his creature. When I told you to stay, you stayed. But now you clenched teeth; he found his position precarious, to say the belong to another - it pleases me to give you to him - for a least, and jammed his heels firmly up under the flyer's while, at least. And now it's time to fly or die. So fly... fly! wings where they met its body, to give himself more Only then, on Vasagi's command, had the flyer purchase. extended its wings; and as alveolate bones, membrane But at least he was airborne and Starside bound at last. and muscle stretched in metamorphic flux, so the creature And his weird mount, so heavy and unwieldy on the had launched itself aloft! A moment more, and then - ground? Now it glided like some prehistoric bird, - Wind whipping in Nestor's face as his mount glided balancing itself on turbulent currents of air and steadily out and turned in a rising thermal over Sunside! And as gaining altitude. Bravo! Ah, but while it knew how to fly, its arched manta wings formed vast scoops or air-traps, so Nestor did not! the beast rose up towards the peaks, where soon the sun Perhaps he had known it, upon a time, but all long would strike with hammers of gold. But Nestor was no forgotten now. Vague memories, revenant of some elusive, longer afraid, not of anything. For welling up from deep shadowy past - of a flyer just like this one, all crashed and within his changeling's mind and body, he'd heard the broken on Sunside, screaming in lethal sunlight as its skin first discordant notes of a strange, savage and wonderful cracked open to issue jets of steam, and its fluids dripping song - Wamphyri! free like the juices of a pig on a spit - were all that And how that silent song of metamorphosis had remained. Maybe that was how he'd got himself thrilled in his contaminated blood, for at last he had marooned and lost his memory in the first place, by known he was on his way. crashing his flyer on Sunside and banging his head. It was To Starside! an explanation, at least. Well, and now he'd be a Lord To the last aerie! again, and have new things to remember. Ah, but new Wamphyri! Wamphyyyyri. ..! things to learn first, like flying! As the mountainside fell away, and the furious bluster slackened, he leaned forward between the jutting 58 59 pommels and wiped at his streaming tears. And slitting between the pommel horns and tickled the creature's his eyes, finally he could see again. Meanwhile in its spine, then concentrated his thoughts in a stream of abuse search for thermals, the flyer had spiralled south; and along its leathery neck and into its head. And he finished there, far out across the furnace desert, Nestor spied a with a threat: spear of yellow light lancing from the molten horizon, Make haste, now, or I'll crawJ along your neck and striking west upon the flanks of the gaunt grey stick this in your ear.' The beast heard him; more than mountains. Sunup, and Nestor's time on Sunside was at that, it felt the first hot breath of the sun upon its an end. 'North!' he shouted at his mount. 'North - Starside hindquarters, put its nose down and glided into the - the last aerie!' shadows of a pass. And safe from the sun at last, it sped From the west, all along the spine of the barrier range, for Starside. the fan of fire crept closer and the mountains came alive Nestor breathed a sigh of relief, and in the next with light. The yellow egg of the sun was set to hatch on moment heard guttural laughter and a ringing cry: 'Bravo!' the southern horizon, to let its golden bird of prey fly free! It was Wran. He launched his flyer from the shadows But now, as if answering Nestor's cry however of a ridge and came up alongside. 'You made it by a grudgingly, his flyer wheeled lumberingly north and breath! What? On a count of ten, your beast's wings seemed to hang there a moment in mid-air, suspended would have blackened and crisped to dust! Aye, and it's a between the uppermost peaks. And as in a frenzy he long way down, Lord Nestor of the Wamphyri...' cried, 'Faster, fly faster!', the beast commenced a His words carried on the air, but they were also in leisurely drift inwards over peaks, ravines and plateau Nestor's mind. It was an art of the Wamphyri; at close jumbles. Till finally, lowering its tapering neck and head, range like this they were thought-thieves to a man, but it slid gradually into a glide. some much better than others. Vasagi had been a Nestor couldn't know it, but his mount found no great veritable master of telepathy, while Wran's talent was novelty in all this drama; it had flown this way before merely middling. Now it was Nestor's turn: with Vasagi the Suck, and knew the route well enough; Why did you wait? there was nothing new here except its rider, a feeble- Ahhh! Wran was taken by surprise, but recovered in a seeming fellow at best. His thoughts were blunt as moment. What? A mentalist, too? But is it you, Nestor, or wedges, not needle-sharp, like the Suck's. He'd not once simply the effect of Vasagi's egg? If the latter, then used his spurs, but sat there wan and wind-lashed in the obviously you got a good one ... considering its source, saddle. Why he was here at all remained a mystery. that is.' And again he laughed. As to why I waited: simple Perhaps Nestor sensed the flyer's slow, dull thoughts, curiosity. Frankly, I didn't think you'd make it. Since you and its low regard for himself. But with the sun at his have, and since I'm responsible /or your -predicament? - it heels he was done with gentling the beast! He snatched seems only right that I should escort you into Starside, the dart from under his crossbow's tiller, leaned forward introduce you and make explanation. For you're a cool one, Nestor, and in no way the fool I 60 61 now. Any danger of burning was past, and the hackles on first considered you. The Suck was my enemy, but Nestor's neck lay flat. The earlier exhilaration of his ride you'U make a useful ally. And what will you get out of returned; feeling more in control, he began to enjoy it. it? Well believe me, you'll need all the friends you can He urged his flyer on. Faster, faster! Get in front. Show get, in Wrathstack! that sluggish creature how to fly! His beast responded, Wrathstack? It was news to Nestor. But the suffix pulled ahead, left Wran in its wake. 'stack' had brought a flash of memory. Synonymous Hah! Wran called after him. And so you see, he bred with 'aerie', it had painted a picture in his mind of the good creatures, old Vasagi. But on the other hand, why, last great redoubt of the Wamphyri, called ... Karen- there's not so much meat on you! And then, less stack? It had been, upon a time, of that he was sure. grudgingly: Still, you do sit the beast well, so that what Also that he had been there before. But when, how? with your mentalism and all, I fancy you'll do all right. His thoughts were so intense that Wran picked them Nestor looked back and laughed, and cried out loud: from his mind without difficulty, and answered: Many a Til do better than all right!' Lord or Lady has dwelled there from time to time, I Oh, really? Wran pulled alongside again. Well, I hope should think, since the early days of Turgo Zolte. I can't you do, but the odds are all against it. What you have to say, for I don't know Starside's history. But now the remember is this: in Wrathstack we're all vampires born. aerie has new tenants, and on the whole we call it And me? Why, I might well have been born in the saddle! Wrathstack after the Lady Wratha, who brought us here But this time his laughter was grating as iron in cold from Turgosheim in the east. His thoughts had turned ashes as he swerved his flyer in towards Nestor's, caught sour now. it a glancing blow, and almost sent it crashing into the She's your leader? Nestor was mainly innocent, careless wall of the canyon! Turning side-on to fan the precipitous in his choice of words. rock, the creature flattened like a leaf to scrape the She was, for a while, Wran growled in his head. And weathered stone, and for a moment Nestor felt he'd be with a strong man to ride and guide her ... who can say? tilted into space. Then ... the danger was past and he She could be again. Well, a partner in leadership, at could breathe again, and from up ahead: least. But that's for the future ... Plainly, he'd grown tired So you'll do better than all right, will you? Maybe you of the conversation. Now let's make haste. For I've been will at that. But first you must live long enough, eh? It too long away. Aye, and things are wont to change in a had been a lesson, and Nestor wouldn't forget it. Just one hurry, in Wrathstack ... of several things which he wouldn't forget ... about Wran He drew ahead, put on a spurt and sent his flyer diving the Rage. into the Great Pass, which split the barrier range in a The end of the pass was now in sight, where the dogleg north to south. Nestor followed (by his will, or mountains sloped down to Starside's boulder plains. And purely of his beast's own inclination, he could not say) on the left, just coming into view, the bulging, to hurtle above the bed of the pass at breakneck speed. The bend in the dogleg lay to the rear, a haze of yellow where the sun's lethal rays were trapped for 63 62 stone. The rest of it, the aerie that had been, lay in blinding dome of the half-buried sphere portal to the hell- blocks like the knuckles of a skeletal spine stretched out lands. Nestor knew it without knowing how he knew; across the plain. But it was only the first of many. likewise the plume or finger of glowing, poisoned earth Side by side, Wran and Nestor rose up and flew that pointed from the Gate out across the barren plains across the mighty stump from side to side, and looked towards the Icelands. To him, these things were more than down into its yawning, hollowed maw. There were adequate confirmation that indeed he'd been here before. If rooms down there, vast pits, and stairwells of bone and only he could remember. stone, and polished vats like the molds for making But he was given no time to ponder the enigma; for up monsters. 'Exactly so!' cried Wran, picking up Nestor's ahead Wran swerved right, eastwards, away from the Gate thoughts again. 'For this was an aerie, upon a time! and out towards Karenstack (no, Wrathstack, now), the Why, it must have rivalled Wrathstack itself! In last great aerie of the Wamphyri. Miles sped by beneath Turgosheim in the east, men and warriors have clashed, the manta flyers, where their moon- and star-cast shadows and blood been spilled, over many a lesser manse than flowed like stains in the immemorial dust, or like clots of this!' darkness over bald, domed boulders and riven earth alike. Nestor looked across at him. 'And yet now ... why do And looming in the north-east, vast monument to the evil you live lumped together in Wrathstack?' of ages past, Wrathstack was a lone fang among the 'Ah-hah!' Wran cried. 'It must be the recluse in you, as stumps of fallen stacks, where the shattered aeries of the it was in Vasagi. He, too, would have stayed on his own, olden Lords lay in tumbled disarray, littering the plain like if he could. It was because the Suck felt crowded in corpses or rotted mushrooms petrified to stone. Turgosheim, that he came here with the rest of us to And as if Wran read Nestor's mind again, though in fact olden Starside. Or perhaps it's simply your longing for he merely conversed, his question came ringing: 'Oh, and an aerie and territories of your own, which is an urge have you been here before, too, Lord Nestor?' common among the Wamphyri. But you know what, Aye, he had, the once at least. These jumbles of toppled Nestor? Why, I find myself half-willing to believe that stone, their configurations, seemed so familiar they were the spirit of some olden creature - some vampire out of like memories in themselves; yet they failed to spark time - has indeed returned to inhabit you! In other others in the aching void of Nestor's head. But he made no words, you're a natural, lad, a natural!' comment, neither speech nor thought, except to drive his They sped on, gaining height over a wilderness of beast that much faster and draw level again with his twisted bone and fretted rock ruins, over tortured vampire companion. cartilage relics and fire-blackened mounds, where other Ahead loomed a stack (or the stump of one), three- grand aeries had exploded in their bases and slumped quarters of a kilometre broad at its scree-littered base, down into themselves, forming pyramids of scree and rising to three hundred metres high by two hundred wide rubble. And Wrathstack drawing ever closer, rearing on where its hollow neck was like the shattered bole of an high, its uppermost towers, battlements, launching-bays ancient tree felled by lightning and turned to and windows most of a kilometre high and more than an acre in cross-section. 65 64 And: 'Up now, up!' Wran shouted. 'Let the winds take you, where they spiral round this last great spire.' II Climb, Nestor commanded his flyer. Follow on behind. Gain height. Form scoops with your wings, trap the air, The Last Aerie and rise on the rising thermals. It was all sound advice, but wasted; good practice but nothing more. His creature was experienced in all such matters. And Wrathstack loomed closer still... Less than a hundred metres from the wall of the colossal stack, both flyers discovered sighing currents of air and commenced a mighty rising spiral. And as they climbed, so Nestor benefited from Wran's knowledge of the place. Down below, the Rage sent, in the nethermost levels, the very bowels of the place, that's Gorvi's domain. The dark and devious Gorvi the Guile. He keeps the wells, and has flightless warriors on the ground, to repel any would-be incursions. Hah! A pointless exercise! If ever we're attacked, it won't be from the ground. It's just a measure of the way he watches his back. We don't call him the Guile for nothing. Ah, see? Here he comes now, eager to know who won the duel and now returns victorious out of Sunside. But myself or Vasagi, what odds? It will make no difference to Gorvi. He'll be sour - he always is! A flyer launched from a cavern mouth beneath an overhang of rock and came spiralling up behind. Fresh from resting, the creature fanned its manta wings and rapidly gained on Wran and Nestor's weary beasts. Nestor twisted in his saddle and looked back and down; his wide, curious eyes met Gorvi's only a wing-span to the left and a metre or two below, and he saw immediately how well the other's nickname suited him. The Guile sat hunched, by no means cadaverous yet 67 remarkably corpse-like, scowling in his saddle. The instructing the young Lord Nestor in the ways of the dome of his head was shaven save for a single central stack: its personalities and their responsibilities in the lock, with a knot hanging to the rear. Dressed in black, various levels which they inhabit. Our time is short. So with his cloak belling out like tattered wings, the contrast begone!' of his sallow features turned him to a leprous vulture Gorvi reined in more yet, and fell to the rear. And settling to its prey. With eyes so deeply sunken they were Wran continued, proudly: little more than a crimson glimmer, yet shifty for all that, 'These next levels up - a good many, as you see - are and hands clutching the reins like skinny claws, this was mine; mine and my brother Spiro's, wherein we control Gorvi. He seemed a sinister creature: but of course, for the main refuse pits and methane chambers. These are a he was Wamphyri! And he didn't like the way Nestor great responsibility, a huge weight upon our shoulders .. . stared back at him. which are broad to take it! If not for the diligence of the 'What's this?' Gorvi finally called out to Wran. 'Some brothers Killglance, the stack would go without heat and captive you've brought back out of Sunside? A new light, eventually without inhabitants. Seven great levels - lieutenant, perhaps? Was he your second in the duel, high-ceilinged, indeed cavernous, and likewise huge Wran? And if so, did Vasagi have one also? If not ... be across - that is the extent of Madmanse. For we've named sure there'll be some who say you cheated.' our place in memory of our old manse in Turgosheim, do Wran dropped back a little and settled lower, levelling you see? But new Madmanse is far and away superior to with Gorvi. 'Do you think so?' he called across, scowling our haunted old promontory home in the east. And oh so to match the other's scowl. They'll say I cheated, eh? well equipped! Well as long as you're not one of them, you'll be safe. Or 'We have launching bays, vats for the brewing of is it that you, too, would care to fly to Sunside with me, creatures, and all manner of rooms, halls, and stables. In and try your luck in the gloomy forests?' Turgosheim in the time of the tithe, fresh meat was hard 'I meant nothing by it.' Gorvi shrugged and reined to come by. We kept beasts to supplement our diet. But here? Sunside is a well-stocked larder, a hive full of back a little. 'I was making conversation, that's all. And honey, a bottomless well of sweet ... whatever.' And so you've taken a prisoner. But a proud one, if I'm not chuckling obscenely, he glanced across at Nestor. mistaken.' As they spiralled higher still, Nestor began to shiver, Again Nestor turned to look back at Gorvi, and this time for the cold was finding its way into his bones. Soon ... his lip curled a little as he shouted, 'You want to know he'd no longer notice it too much. But for now he sat like who I am, Gorvi the Guile? Then speak to me, not about an icicle in his saddle. In any case he was soon distracted, me! My name's Nestor - Lord Nestor, of the Wamphyri - as out from a yawning launching bay sprang Spiro and the last thing I am is a captive!' 'Eh?' Gorvi was Killglance aboard a flyer of his own. 'Ho, brother!' he astonished, if not outraged. 'But -' '- No buts!' Wran cut shouted gleefully across at Wran. 'So you've had it out him short. 'Learn all about it at my reception. But until and the Suck is no more. I for one never doubted the then, keep your nose out! I'm outcome. But how did you deal with him ... and 69 68 Suckscar! Hah! But now it shall have a new name, to go who is your friend?' His eyebrows came together in a with its new master. What do you say to that, Nestor? frown as first he stared, then glared, at Nestor. In Nestor's youth, he'd learned a trick to keep his Nestor in turn stared back, and committed Spiro's details brother's thoughts out of his mind. Though his youth and to memory. Patently the brothers were twins, and possibly even his brother were forgotten to him now (except he even identical, though certainly not in their mannerisms or knew the latter as a vague and largely mythical 'enemy' mode of dress. For where Wran actually looked the Lord dwelling on Sunside), the trick itself remained accessible. (as Nestor had always imagined Lords to be), Spiro seemed It involved thinking obliquely, 'to one side' of his main far more a vagabond or ruffian, removed from his brother stream of thoughts, and so keeping his secrets to himself. as chalk from cheese. He was loutish, with a loose- The art was an instinctive thing, and useful now as never hanging lower lip and mainly malign expression, and his before. For Wran believed that Vasagi had melted in the 'clothes' were disreputable to say the least: a rag of leather sun. for a shirt, a dirty breechclout, and a strip of cloth on his Perhaps he had, and perhaps not. But Nestor saw how forehead to keep his unkempt hair out of his fiery scarlet hazardous it could be to admit what he'd done: namely, eyes. Other than this, and the fact that Wran wore a small that he'd set Vasagi free after Wran had left him for dead. black wen upon his chin, the brothers were physically Perhaps for a similar if not quite the same reason, he alike: tall, broad-shouldered, and a little overweight. They should also leave well enough alone in the re-naming of might even be said to be handsome - or perhaps 'handsome Vasagi's manse. specimens'. Certainly they were not ugly, not in For which reason, finally: Let the name stand, he appearance, anyway. answered Wran in his own mode. Suckscar will suffice, 'By now Vasagi's blood is boiling to slime!' Wran for now at least. answered his brother's query. 'I drained his leech, then But then, a moment more and he gasped aloud. For pegged him out on a hillside to await the sun's rising. As suddenly Wran's meaning had sunk in! That Suckscar for this one,' he glanced again at Nestor, 'he was of use to should be named anew, with a name to suit ... himself! Its me. At any rate, I count him an ally. He is the Lord new master! Lord Nestor of the Wamphyri! And finally, Nestor.' no longer guarding his thoughts but letting them fly free: Spiro's eyebrows peaked. 'A Lord, did you say?' For now . . . I really am Wamphyri/ 'Indeed!' Wran answered. 'For he has the Suck's egg!' But: Huh.' came Spiro's mental grunt. And to Wran: 'Ahhh!' sighed the other, in amaze. 'But ... you must Brother, you're changeable as the winds chasing tell me all.' themselves around Wrathstack' I thought we'd arranged 'All in good time,' Wran replied. 'But for now let's get that I should be master of Suckscar? That way, between on.' And to Nestor: us, we'd control almost half the stack. And now? Where was 1? Ah, yes, Madmanse, which now falls Now? Wran answered (and this time he was the one to behind and beJow. And up ahead: Mangemanse, where guard his thoughts, ensuring they went only to Spiro). Canker Canison crows to the moon; and higher still ... Why, with this simpleton Nestor in place - if we 71 70 Spiro shrugged. 'An instrument - musical, he says.' can fix it - it will amount to much the same thing! That 'Musical?' Wran was nonplussed. 'Like the Szgany way, before too long and after we settle one or two other troupe which Devetaki Skullguise kept in Masque-manse? scores, why, you'Jl still be available to inhabit some other Aye, they were musicians, but Canker? An instrument of level, eh? hollow bones?' Then for a while, gradually receding, their chuckles 'To help him in his devotions,' Spiro tried to explain. hung black as sin and just as secretive, dwindling to 'He swears the moon's deaf and can't hear him, or else nothing in the mental ether. And now there were four she'd come down to be his lover. And so he's determined to flyers, all strung out in a row, climbing towards the higher sing all the louder, with the help of the thing which he levels and bays ... fashions from these bones. How? Don't ask me - ask him! 'Nestor,' Wran eventually called aloud, as rocky caverns Hah! And to think, they call us the mad ones! But we and ledges, fretted bone causeways, and external only rage, we don't rave!' staircases of fused cartilage and stone slipped down and 'Suckscar!' Wran cried, forgetting in a moment Canker's away into the abyss of air. 'There goes Mangemanse doings. 'And these were Vasagi's levels: yours, now, below. Only four levels, as you see. More than sufficient Nestor. Or soon to be, we hope. Not much to tell; not for the great hound who dwells there, and not much I can much to do, in Suckscar, for the heavy duties are all tell you about them. Their master's responsibilities are below. But Vasagi was the expert in metamorphism: he few; indeed, he seems to exist only to keep us apart! could make monsters! His vats will be yours now, Wratha and the rest of us, I mean. But when we take to including the beasts which are brewing in them. But our beds, Canker is often on the prowl. He keeps more you'll doubtless fashion creatures of your own ... given bitches than the rest of us - he has his needs, you know? - time, and with a little help. A favour for a favour, eh, but his real mistress is the silver moon. Oh, you'll hear his Spiro?' He winked at his brother, gliding now to one howling soon enough, as he sings his devotions to his side. 'We can all use a little help, from time to time. But goddess on high! Still, it surprises me he's not here for my in any case, enough of that; for you'll soon be exploring reception.' Suckscar to your heart's content.' 'Ah, but other things are on his mind,' Spiro cut in across He lifted his head, looked on and up, and smiled a the blustery gulf. 'For Canker builds a thing of bones!' gaping smile. 'And now - to my reception!' 'He builds . . . a what?' Wran shook his head and Three-quarters of a kilometre below, the collapsed laughed his amaze. mounds and shattered stacks of toppled aeries were stony 'A device of pipes large and small, made from the jumbles on a pebble plain. South-west, majestic now, the hollow bones of warriors where he finds them littered on barrier mountains were golden in their peaks; while the boulder plains. He's spent the entire night with his central and to the east, the grey gradually faded to lieutenants, flying to and fro, lifting up bones to his yellow. Hours yet, some thirty or more, before the sun kennel.' would strike through the central peaks and play her rays 'But why? For what good reason? A device, you say? on Wrathstack, and then only in these highest What sort of device?' 72 73 levels. Still and all, in other times the Wamphyri would the creature aside, Nestor slid gratefully to the ground. be preparing for their long sleep, for even the thought of Except it wasn't the ground but the mouth of a cavern the sun was unbearable. Except now . . . a victor had two thousand eight hundred feet high above the boulder returned out of Sunside and desired his reception. It was plains! And even safe on the floor of the vast landing only just, after all. bay, still Nestor staggered. 'Wrathspire!' cried Wran. 'And why not? For it is Wran came from somewhere, took his arm, and indeed the very spire of the stack, and Wratha's the Lady whispered: 'Now is not the time to show weakness. Let who dwells here. Her apartments are the loftiest and - me do the talking and all will go well.' Nestor was only dare I say it? - the lordliest. So where better to accept the too pleased to submit to this scheme; he was dizzy, grudging applause of my peers? And see, the Mistress awed, and had no words. herself awaits us . . . " At the back of the landing bay, stone staircases with Riding a gusting wind, Wran's flyer rounded a jagged balustrades of bone climbed the rock wall to tunnels and natural buttress and settled towards a cavernous landing balconies which in turn led to higher levels of bay. The others were close behind: Spiro, then Gorvi honeycombed rock. Descending to the lower levels, other jumping the queue, and finally Nestor. He was busy now, gangways passed through steep shafts or cartilage anxiously commanding his flyer: Follow the others; stay stairwells. But on high, looking down from one of the in line; easy now ... easy! But not so busy he could fail to balconies, there stood Wratha. And lured by her notice the Lady Wratha, where she leaned against the presence, finally Nestor's eyes focused upon her. And carved bone balcony of an observation port above and to she was a sight for sore eyes. one side of the bay. For her part, Wratha merely glanced at him, however Even a glimpse was riveting, magnetic, so that Nestor's speculatively, before speaking to Wran. 'The Lord Kill- eyes felt compelled to linger upon her. That couldn't be, glance, back from Sunside, I see, and all in one piece!' however, for Gorvi's flyer was already down and shuffling She raised an inquiring eyebrow. The Suck?' to one side, making room for Nestor's beast. Nestor's 'Need you ask?' Wran returned, smiling like a skull. creature knew what it was about; balancing. on the wind, 'Oh, I know your preferences, Wratha, but alas it isn't it waited its turn. Its wings were arched into huge traps, so. By now Vasagi's all rendered down, a stain on the thrusters extended forward to take the shock of landing. hill where I pegged him out to await the rising sun. And Briefly, Nestor experienced a moment of vertigo: the indeed the sun was hot on our heels as we left.' sheer height was appalling! He didn't look down but 'We?' Again her eyes flickered over Nestor, and clung to reins and saddle, and wisely refrained from returned to Wran. issuing any further commands. Wran glanced at Nestor. 'His is a story I can tell at my Finally Gorvi's beast cleared the landing area, and reception.' Nestor's flyer inched forward and settled to the grainy Wratha nodded. 'Well, I prepared a feast for one of rock. As thralls came forward to take the reins and lead you, whoever was the victor. So now will you join me, in my apartments on high?' 74 75 The others, Gorvi and Spiro, were already on their way Through all of this, Nestor didn't take his eyes off her up a bone-embellished causeway. Wran and Nestor would until the moment she drifted out of sight through an follow them at once, but there came an interruption. From archway behind the balcony. Then he blinked, looked at below, out of one of the sunken stairwells, the huge- Wran, and said, 'Wratha?' But it seemed as if her afterimage still burned on his retinas, and he could still shouldered figure of a man appeared, clad in the polished see her there: leather garb of a lieutenant. 'My Lady!' he called up to Wratha. 'I beg pardon for the intrusion, but . . . I believe it She was tall, even as tall (or as small, in company such is my right?' His eyes under shaggy black brows were as this) as Nestor himself, with hair black as night in plaits feral, scarlet in their cores. A true disciple of vampirism. that fell to her shoulders. Around her neck, she wore a Wratha scowled down on him. 'Vasagi's man?' 'Indeed,' he golden torque or harness, with ropes of black bat fur replied. 'I am Gore Sucksthrall: first out of Sunside ... depending vertically to form a smoky curtain. Milky limbs first-made of Vasagi in Suckscar ... now Keeper of the gleamed as if oiled through the black stripes of fur, but her Vats. It seems my master's manse goes wanting a leader. naked arms projected; likewise the points of her tilted If I am worthy of that honour, I would ascend.' breasts, a Jong pale oval of thigh, and a delicate knee. While Wratha and Gore exchanged words, the Lords The image was fading now, but Nestor continued to on the stairs and in the landing bay paused to listen. As examine what remained of it. Wratha's eyes had been least Gore finished, Gorvi the Guile (devious as his name in evidence. Protected by a scarp of figured bone upon her implied), clapped his hands briefly and cried, 'Well said!' brow, their fire had been subdued by the ornamentation of For he could smell trouble a mile away, and invariably blue-glittering crystals fixed to her temples, and matching encouraged it. earrings in the furred lobes of her fleshy ears. But apart But Wran grasped Nestor's arm tightly and muttered, from the shell-like whorls of those Wamphyri ears, and the 'Damn it to hell! A complication .. .' somewhat flattened aspect of a nose whose convolutions And Wratha nodded and called down: 'Well then, Gore had not seemed too exaggerated — and the scarlet flicker Sucksthrall, maybe you'd better come up.' And sweeping of her split, vampire's tongue, of course - apart from those her eyes over the others: 'But gentlemen, no gauntlets if things, she might well have been Szgany. you please. It is a rule I'm obliged to enforce. Certain of In short, she had looked more woman than a Lady of my creatures are easily disturbed ... and volatile to say the the Wamphyri as Nestor might have expected one to be ... least.' It was meant as a warning, not a threat; Wratha looked it, at least. kept her small, personal warriors chained when she had 'Wratha the Risen, aye,' Wran answered sourly, starting visitors. But as she slipped away, her deceptively sweet up the stone stairs. But after two paces he paused, looked laughter came floating down to them. And to a man they back at Nestor and said, 'What, does she interest you knew who was mistress here in the aerie's heights. then? Stricken, are you? What, you?' He slapped his thigh and laughed, 'Hah!' - and was sober again in 77 76 a moment. 'Better watch your step, Nestor. She fancies Female thralls scurried, finished setting places, then young men out of Sunside.' fled out of sight. Wran seated himself opposite Wratha at Nestor, following behind, inquired: 'Something to fear?' the end of the table as she had suggested, and indicated a 'Not really,' the other grunted, sweeping up the stairs. seat to Nestor some three chairs away on his left. Nestor 'Not unless you make her angry. It's not a good idea, to took the indicated chair and sat there wondering what to make the Lady Wratha angry.' do with himself. The chair was built for a man, or more And behind them both, Gore Sucksthrall followed in properly a Lord of the Wamphyri. Seated in it, he felt surly mood, saying nothing at all. . . like a mere boy. In time his vampire leech, developed from Vasagi's egg, would attend to that: his They climbed through three expansive levels to Wrath- metamorphic flesh would stretch and fill out. But for spire's Great Hall, where the Lady's thralls had prepared a now ... well at least he could try thinking like a Lord. table for five. The table was enormous: five feet wide and Spiro Killglance sat on Nestor's left, with some five or extending all of forty-five feet down the hall from six chairs separating them. Opposite Spiro, Gore Wratha's bone-throne, it could easily have accommodated Sucksthrall took his place, and Gorvi the Guile edged three dozen people. At its head, upon a shallow platform into a chair across from Nestor. On the table in front of and so slightly elevated, there stood Wratha's great chair, Wratha's guests, wooden platters, hollowed into shallow in which sat the Lady herself. The bone-throne was a bowls, contained barbed stabbing spikes of soft gold. monstrous, marvellous thing - the skeletal lower jaw of There were leather drinking jacks, and several large jugs some vast, long-dead creature - which she had acquired of fired pottery patterned in the fashion of Sunside's along with the furniture and all other appurtenances of Szgany, containing sweet water or weak wine for the Wrathspire the day she'd arrived in this abandoned, jacks. Wratha knew better than to serve strong drink. derelict place out of Turgosheim. The stack had been Her own plate and cup were of gold; she likewise knew derelict then, at least. But now, due chiefly to Wratha's how to make her guests feel small and even unworthy. industry, it had returned to loathsome life. The fare was scarcely extravagant: lightly braised Already seated when her thralls ushered her guests into hearts, kidneys, and livers of shads, and four suckling the Great Hall, Wratha came briefly to her feet and made wolves roasted on spits and basted in a sauce of their apology of a sort: mother's milk, urine, and blood. Individual or special 'I had prepared for five; since it appears we're now six, requirements were not catered for; the food was simply my girls are setting an extra place - or perhaps two, for an expression of Wratha's hospitality; the Wamphyri Canker may yet honour his obligations. Wran Killglance: normally 'refuelled' themselves in the first hours after as victor, you will take the chair directly opposite mine, at sundown, according to personal needs, habits, and tastes. the guest's "head" of table. You others ... may sit where That which at this hour would be breakfast to a you will.' Traveller, was therefore a mere novelty to them. 79 78 Nestor, on the other hand, was hungry. He had last didn't know what the meat was. Whatever, he would have eaten well before sundown, in the cabin of Brad Berea in eaten it! It was strong and imparted strength. And while the forest. In the time-scale of a parallel world beyond the he ate, he studied his surroundings. Starside Gate (which Szgany and Wamphyri alike called The Great Hall was all of a hundred and fifty feet long the hell-lands, because since time immemorial no one had by sixty feet wide. It ran parallel with the south-facing ever returned from them), that was the equivalent of four wall of the stack, where windows had been cut through days. There was no way Nestor could know that, but he the solid rock to the chasm of open air that spanned the did know that since sundown he'd survived on a few nuts, boulder plains all the way to the barrier mountains. In and a piece of wild fruit in the woods; scarcely sufficient places, these deep embrasures in the wall of the spire were to keep body and soul together. Well, too late now to almost tunnels; in others, where the rock was thinner, they worry about his soul, but his body must go on at least. formed archways out onto high balconies of grafted bone, Also, while his memory was still largely impaired prior whose baffles of hide and cartilage were so constructed as to his time spent with the Bereas, his mind itself was to turn aside and deaden the buffeting of the wind. Framed completely healed and receptive - made receptive by his in one such opening, Nestor observed the fluttering of a parasite egg, which demanded that he be strong and banner, which periodically displayed Wratha's sigil: a cunning - so that he was constantly learning. The ability, kneeling man in silhouette, with slumped shoulders and indeed the need to learn anew had been sparked within bowed head ... him. And with no background as such, an empty past, Each window was fitted with black bat-fur drapes every smallest item of new information was soaking into which presently stood open, giving access to the pale his brain like rain into desiccated earth. While deep in his dawn light. Many hours still to go before the sun shone on subconscious, thirsty seeds of ambition, knowledge, even Wrathspire, by which time the curtains would be drawn. memory - however misshapen or mutated from their But from where Nestor sat, if he turned his head a little, source material — were waiting to spring to life. But he he could see the morning mists of Sunside gathering in the could not become wise, strong, Wamphyri, in a depleted gaunt grey peaks and passes, forming clouds and drifting body. And so he ate. free. The sight was nothing new to him, except . . . in He ate with gusto, stabbing a slice of shad liver, which previous times, he'd seen it from the other side. Perhaps at was in any case a Szgany delicacy, and doing it justice as that - at these distant echoes and thoughts out of the past, he held it in his hand and tore at it with strong teeth. And of Sunside and what he had been there - Nestor felt such was his hunger that the meat never even touched his something of poignancy for a life gone and forgotten platter! Another slice followed, and a steaming kidney, forever, but all such emotions were rapidly fading now. whole, which he manoeuvred onto his plate without losing In two of the 'corners' of the mainly irregular hall, but a splash of gravy. Then a jack of wine, and tender curtained areas hid Wratha's smaller, personal warriors flesh from a thigh of suckling wolf. The Szgany didn't eat from view. But in a third she had deliberately left the wolf, but Nestor 80 81 drapes open. At the sight of the creature shackled there, While making these observations, Nestor had continued her guests were reminded yet again of Wratha's to eat, until now he was replete. Sighing, he stripped a last sovereignty in these dizzy aerial levels. Twice the size of morsel of tender flesh from the thigh bone of a wolf-cub, a man and nine times heavier, with overlapping, inch- glanced round the table ... and paused in his chewing. thick scales of blue-grey, chitin armour, the creature was Every eye seemed rapt upon him: the way he had mainly claws, jaws, and teeth. Going on all fours like a disposed of his food. Finally he put down the gleaming bear (despite that it once was a man, or men), it would bone, ran his fingers through his hair to clean them, and occasionally rear upright, grunt and mutter questioningly, glanced at Wran questioningly. The Rage seemed to find and shake its chains curiously -but purely out of habit. something amusing; he stifled a laugh and merely During the daylight hours proper, when the sun was grinned, and took another sip from his jack. But Wratha, high and Wratha had taken to her bed, two of these beasts no less fascinated than the others, raised an eyebrow and would be stationed in the stairwells near the launching said: bays, while the third would roam through Wrathspire top 'Well, at least one of us has an appetite!' Which to bottom, guarding mainly against aerial incursions, but galvanized the rest of her guests to something of activity, also patrolling Wratha's chambers. The Lady's lieutenants at least. For now they, too, took up their skewers ... and thralls, some of whom had duties in these unsociable In a little while, as all of them about the table joined hours, had her scent upon them, of course, and so were Nestor in swilling wine and picking at various tidbits, safe. But as for any stranger . .. Wratha stood up and rapped for attention. 'My Lords,' she Nestor's gaze was attracted to the dome of the ceiling, began, dryly, 'we are gathered here to honour a special where on several occasions he'd sensed some strange, person upon a rare and special occasion. Namely: the furtive activity. Now he saw what it was: a colony of reception of Wran Killglance on his return out of Sunside, giant Desmodus bats! For in the darkest corners and the where in the night he had business with Vasagi the Suck. gloom of deep ledges (from which locations their spillage Alas, Vasagi is no more. I now call upon Wran - called could neither intrude nor disgust), Wrathspire's lesser the Rage, and rightly - to tell us all, and spare no detail of inhabitants clung like dense black cobwebs or fragments trial and triumph in the telling.' She sat down. It had been of a shroud to walls and ceiling, causing the darkness to a standard opening; the Lords among them had all heard crawl there. Even as Nestor watched, a party of much the same before in Turgosheim, usually from latecomers entered through a window, chitter-ing shrilly Vormulac Unsleep, master of melancholy Vormspire. as they dispersed to various parts of the living blanket. Wran sat up straighter, and made as if to begin. At Vampires all, though not of the human strain, these were which . . . an interruption! It was a sound or series of Wratha's familiars. And Nestor wondered — but in no way sounds: a burble of notes, piping trills, as of Sunside birds morbidly — if he would be heir to just such a colony, five - issuing from a stairwell. At first an odd fluting, soon it levels down in Suckscar. turned to laughter, and then the two interspersed. Curious whistles, and gales of raucous laughter! And: 82 83 'Canker Canison!' Wran scowled, before that one had thickly padded feet were plainly paws. Instead of nails, even presented himself. But in another moment he his hands and feet alike were equipped with claws. Face appeared, with one of Wratha's thralls bowing him in. and head, while basically human, were also disturbingly Nestor looked, saw him, and his jaw dropped. So this was doglike, with long jaws and canine teeth, triangular eyes, the missing Lord. But a Lord? The others around the table and pointed ears which were mobile, expressive, and were mainly human — or born of woman, at least - but thickly furred. Named after the disease of the inner ear this one? Oh, there was something of humanity in him, but which had driven his father baying mad and caused his there was a great deal more of something else! suicide, Canker, by use of his meta-morphism (also by Later, Nestor would learn a little of Canker's history, physically sculpting them), had caused the lobes of his own his unutterable lineage: that somewhere in his ancestry ears to be fretted into curious and intricate designs, which there had been a fox, dog or wolf. Whichever, the creature included his sigil, a sickle moon. had probably strayed from its normal hunting grounds on Canker's hair was a wiry, foxy red; his eyes, too, Sunside or in the mountains and wandered into the though in dusk or darkness they could as easily turn swamps east of Turgosheim to drink. There it had become yellow and feral. His gait was more a long-striding lope infected by a spore and emerged a vampire changeling. than a walk proper, and from time to time he would fall to After that, the possibilities were several: all fours, then push himself upright with sinuous ease. It had bitten or savaged someone, and so passed on a When he laughed there was more than a hint of howling canine strain of vampirism. Or . . . inside the beast, a in it, and the gape of his jaws was enormous. Then, too, leech had developed from the vampire spore, whose egg he would throw back his head and shake from tip to toe later transferred to a man or woman, who became ... Wamphyri and ascended in Turgosheim. Or . . . some He was laughing now, mainly at the long-suffering vampire had sired a litter on a dog bitch, she-wolf, or expressions on the faces of his peers. But as the dog- vixen; not necessarily by miscegenation, probably by thing's laughter died away, so his spiky eyebrows came biting the creature when she was pregnant. Or — in the together in a frown over his long, much-convoluted case of someone like Canker - perhaps even sexu-ally .. . snout, and his voice became a growling rumble. 'Eh, Whichever, evidence of this - mongrel - ancestry had what? And have you started without me?' been apparent in the line ever since, and never more so 'The first gold is on the peaks, Canker,' Wratha than in Canker Canison. Standing upright and leaning observed, without turning a hair. 'It is you who are late. forward (his normal posture), he was tall as a tall man but For someone who observes the future in dreams, you his limbs were all out of proportion. Shoulders, thighs and scarcely seem to observe the present at all; you have no chest were massive, while forelegs were slender, sinewy, sense of occasion! But now that you are here, won't you wolf-like. be seated?' Canker's hands ... were hands; but his knob-like, 'Late?' He sniffed the air, glancing here and there about the table. 'Am I? In which case you must excuse 84 85 it down. 'For if a mere "toy" such as this, in combination me. I serve the moon, as well you know, and my with lungs such as mine, can make music fit for the ears industry on Her behalf is great. In honour of my silver of men ... how then a mighty orchestra of bones, and the mistress in the sky, I am constructing . . . an instrument!' lungs of the very wind itself? So shall I worship Her on He lifted a bone flute to his moist mouth, blew several high, while Wrathstack thunders to the songs of the long ear-piercing notes, then loped to a chair midway dead and forgotten!' He fell quiet and glared all about the between Nestor and Spiro. And seating himself, Canker table. tossed down the flute upon the table. 'This was my inspiration.' Gorvi nodded and put the flute down, and murmured The flute rolled to a rocking standstill in the middle wrily, 'Fit for the ears of men, aye ...' of the table between Nestor and Gorvi the Guile; the 'What?' Canker had heard him. His ears were sensitive latter picked it up, examined it, and said: 'You found to a fault. inspiration in this? A Szgany toy?' But Gorvi only shrugged. 'I was merely ... savouring 'No.' Canker shook his head and scowled. 'Only the the phrase? Your appreciation of music goes deeper than pattern is Szgany. But I made this flute - of bone! we had suspected, Canker.' Szgany flutes are of reed, and they break too easily. The other sat back again, loosely in his chair, and This one's notes are purer, because the bore is perfect. likewise shrugged. 'It's a means to an end, that's all: to lure Then, having made it, I remembered all the times I had my silver mistress from the sky, and make Her my mistress flown over the boulder plains and seen the remains of proper.' He held up a cautionary, protesting hand. 'No, no! olden battles. Why, in places the plains are a veritable Not the moon itself, but the one who dwells there, who ... boneyard! The wars of our ancestors were bloody indeed! who calls to me.' He saw the looks that passed between Men and monsters alike have died out there, and for a them, gave himself a shake and sat up straighter. thousand years their bones have bleached under the cold Then too, as if for the first time, he noticed Nestor and stars, made silver by the moon in Her passing. Gore Sucksthrall. 'But what's this? Do common thralls 'And I thought: those bones have worshipped Her, and lieutenants attend your reception, Wran?' And too, but all in silence. They have worshipped my silver turning his head the other way: 'Do you sup with mistress, whose light has shone on them through all the servants, Wratha? Or is it perhaps that they're the main centuries! And remembering this flute - or Szgany toy, if course?' And he leered at Nestor. you insist,' (he scowled at Gorvi), '- I knew what I must Wran said, 'Canker, you are plainly exhausted. Gore do. And I have started! Sucksthrall here is a lieutenant, sure enough, but Nestor? 'In my house are many windows facing north, the This one has ascended: he has an egg. Indeed, he has Icelands, and the cold winds that blow. I shall build Vasagi's egg, for the Suck has no more use for it! But I'm baffles there, in the central level, to gather the winds surprised you didn't sniff it out for yourself.' within my manse! There, too, I shall build my 'Ahhh! The vampire egg of Vasagi? This boy?' Canker instrument.' He looked at the bone flute where Gorvi had leaned closer to Nestor and sniffed cautiously, as if at put suspect meat. But in a moment: 'Yes, I see you're right!' 86 87 'And now if you'll hear me out, I'll tell all,' said Wran. Ill The others were all ears, except Nestor himself. He knew the tale well enough and could afford to let his Lord Nestor of the Wamphyri attention wander a little. It didn't wander too far, however, for diagonally across the table, Gore Sucksthrall was glaring pure poison at him from furious, blazing eyes! Wran kept it short: 'Vasagi and I, we flew off in different directions from Madmanse and Suckscar. Our arguments had been one too many, and our enmity seemed insurmountable. This was the only honourable way to settle it: man to man on Sunside. For weapons we had our gauntlets, nothing else. I saw Vasagi flying at a distance. We acknowledged each other, a nod of the head. And even at that range he sent a thought: I hope you've said your last farewells, Wran. I/ not, too late now. For only one of us can return. AJas, it won't be you.' 'I thought to make some derisory answer but the distance was increasing. Despite Vasagi's superior men- talism, he probably wouldn't hear me; my range was not so extensive. In that respect, who among us is - or was - equal to Vasagi? Having no speech as such, his telepathy supplemented his ridiculous miming! Still, his words had served as a warning. Not that I feared him, you understand, but he had reminded me of his skill as a thought-thief. From then on, I would keep my own thoughts very well guarded. 'I landed on Sunside east of the great pass, and manoeuvred my flyer back into a thicket of tall trees growing on the hillside. In front was a bluff. When all was done I could call my creature forward and launch without hindrance. And then I waited.' He paused. 89 'You ... waited?' said Gorvi. 'You didn't hunt for him?' '... Having had his blood, a good deal of it, now I Wran shook his head. 'My thought was that he would would enjoy his woman. But first I must deal with his hunt for me. If I moved about, changing my location, it children, lest there be crying and a deal of confusion. would only make his task more difficult. And the sooner There were two Szgany whelps, a girl and boy. The girl we came together the better. And so I waited ... well, for a was six or seven; I smothered her in her sleep. Her little while. But this was Sunside and I could smell the brother was a bairn; I crushed his head. And their mother smoke of a Szgany campfire not long extinguished; so was ... succulent!' Wran paused to glance at Wratha. 'But that suddenly, the urge was on me! Oh, it's true I was here I won't be indelicate. You men can ask me later. For now for different game this night of nights, but I saw no harm I'll tell you only this: she lasted well... in mixing business with pleasure. 'Later, I trekked back towards the place where I'd left 'I went to my flyer and cautioned him to be still, quiet, my flyer. The boy child dangled from my belt, trailing and wait for me. I forbade any sort of commotion, for blood, which made my spoor easier still to follow. And whatever reason. Then I headed east on foot, through the always I kept my mind shielded. But do you know, such foothills. The smoke stench came from that direction; it had been my . . . extravagance with the woman, that I was faint due to distance and the dispersal of small winds; actually felt weary! It was as if I had raged, though in its source might be as much as seven or eight miles away. truth I had not. My flesh had raged a little, perhaps, but ... That was nothing, for I had an entire night at my disposal. such is the nature of lust. So that what with these Also, I made no effort to hide my tracks but left a strong excesses of mine, and all the trekking afoot - plus the fact spoor. That way, if the Suck should discover my flyer, he that during the previous day I'd been excited by the would be able to follow my trail without difficulty. But I prospect of the night ahead, and so had not slept as best I kept my thoughts constantly guarded, for if he sensed my might - I felt depleted. Or perhaps I had supped too well confidence, it might caution him to keep back. on the blood of the man and what little I'd had from his 'Well, eventually I found a small family group of wife - and the rest of what I had had from her - until I was Travellers where they sheltered in a cavelet. My first replete in every sense and now must sleep it off. knowledge of them came when I stumbled across the male 'Except, somewhere out there in the night, Vasagi the having a piss in the dead of night a little way from the Suck was likewise afoot. It gave me pause, but eventually cave. When I found him he was half asleep ... fully asleep I puzzled my way out of the dilemma. when I had done! The sleep of the undead. By now, 'I hastened to my flyer and curled myself in a belly enthralled, doubtless he's following me through the pass. ridge where the thrusters are lodged. And before sleeping Later I'll find him making his way to Wrath-stack, wailing I commanded the beast that if someone approached, like a banshee and gnashing his teeth where he stumbles namely Vasagi the Suck, I was to be awakened at once. across the boulder plains. I hereby lay claim to him. But Or if not - if he came gliding and in great stealth or last night... disguised in a mist, remaining hidden until the last moment - then that my creature must thrust me aside to safety, and roll or fall upon Vasagi and so crush him. 90 91 tion of a Traveller, a Szgany youth, in a grand duel of 'But, no such incursion; I slept the best and possibly vampire Lords? It was astonishing, and it was ironic! For the longest sleep of my life! Then, awakening, I sensed to my way of thinking, it evened up the balance admirably. sunup some hours away and knew that time was Vasagi had used this lad to get close to me, and paid for narrowing down. And still my business with the Suck his deviousness when Nestor turned on him. But injured, remained unsettled. So . . . I would try to lure him one the Suck was yet more dangerous. And in the fight which last time, and if that failed then I must resort to hunting ensued I sustained grave injuries of my own, mainly to him. my back. I intend to keep the scars, to illustrate the extent 'I left my flyer, proceeded some small distance on of Vasagi's ferocity. Perhaps on some future occasion, foot, and there built a fire in the lee of a rocky outcrop. I you may even prevail upon me to display them for you ...' commenced roasting the boy child upon a spit, and This time, when Wran's pause threatened to extend before too long felt a presence. The feeling was itself indefinitely, Gorvi the "Guile put in: 'All very momentary, but strong. In the night and the dark I interesting, I readily submit, though none of it explains fancied I felt eyes upon me, perhaps from on high. And this Nestor's custody of Vasagi's egg. Was it won, or of course I wondered: had Vasagi passed fleetingly illegally . .. bequeathed? Which is to say, not by the Suck, overhead? It would seem the most likely explanation; but by his destroyer, Wran. You'll concede I have a point. certainly the sweet smell of roasting bairn would be a For here sits Gore Sucksthrall, first-chosen lieutenant of vast attraction. If so, then he had surely seen me. Vasagi himself, and rightful aspirant to Suckscar. Must 'I continued to roast my breakfast, and waited. And he now stand aside for this Nestor? An unusual in a little while someone came! Ah, but he was clumsy, procedure, to say the least.' perhaps too eager? Above me in a nest of rounded 'Bah!' This from Wratha. 'What's so unusual, Gorvi? boulders, I heard a pebble slither. Did he intend to Think back on your own ascension, as I often think on jump down on me? Possibly. But I was ready, fully mine. It's the getting there that's important, not the means. rested and wide awake ... even eager! He came to his Aye, the getting there, and the wanting to be there! And doom, be sure! yet . . . it would seem you've asked a valid question: was it 'Except - it wasn't Vasagi! It was this one!' And here done out of spite, maliciously conceived and contrived by Wran pointed dramatically at Nestor. Wran the Rage, or was Nestor receptive? And I ask 'However unwittingly, this strange night-prowling another: if the latter, how so? For in all my days I've Szgany youth had distracted me when, concentrating never yet heard of a Traveller who desired to be upon his approach, I had failed to detect the Suck's! Or Wamphyri - not before the fact, at least.' rather, Vasagi had utilized this one's clumsiness to Canker Canison sat up straighter, slapped a hand flat mask his own far more sinister slither. And while I was on the table and barked: 'Only one person to ask!' And confused, finally he attacked! turning to Nestor, where so far he'd sat silent: 'You, Then . . . Nestor. You have a vampire egg in you. But did you '... Nestor shouted a warning! Also, he put a bolt in desire to be Wamphyri, or was it forced upon you?' the Suck's shoulder. But can you credit it? The interven- 93 92 ing his human compassion and deadening his sensibilities. 'What the hell odds does it make?' Wran roared, In so doing, it honed to a razor's edge those skills coming to his feet. 'Wratha has it right: it's getting there necessary to Nestor's - and of course its own - survival. that counts. As for eggs: don't we bequeath them where For above all else, the vampire is tenacious. we will? We do, when we have the choice. Well, when And Gore was quite wrong: instead of sitting there last I saw Vasagi the Suck, he had no choice. I pegged his 'numb and dumb', Nestor had taken his small but deadly broken body out to burn. And now I wish I'd let his leech crossbow from his belt and into his lap, fitted its bolt, and and egg burn with him!' now only required to load it. While the first of these 'May I speak?' Gore Sucksthrall growled, but quietly. actions had been easy, going all unseen behind and below And when they looked at him: the bulk of the great table, the last would take some small 'It seems to me that the Lord Wran engineered this effort and could never be accomplished in secret, thing,' Gore said. 'Not to thwart me - of course not, for I especially now that all eyes were on Nestor. He hesitated am nothing as yet - but to punish his old enemy the Lord ... there was still time enough ... he would wait and see Vasagi, who was my master. It would seem a grand jest, what he would see. to transfer the Suck's egg to this . .. this innocent. And of Canker, on Nestor's immediate left, had doubtless seen course, cowed by Wran and afraid of us all, this unworthy his furtive movements; he said nothing but simply said receptacle sits here, numb and dumb, and praying it's all a there, feral eyes blazing, holding his dog's breath and dream. Myself, I would aspire to Suckscar, and no glancing from Nestor to Gore and back again. Gore had question about it. Except a usurper has Vasagi's egg. meanwhile put both of his huge hands flat on the table and Doubtless it was torn from my master's body, or fled him looked about ready to stand up. His eyes were likewise upon his death. Which seems to me the easiest way to feral - and full of murder. He had made his challenge; if it regain it - and now, before the egg becomes a leech, or went unaccepted, or even unanswered by Nestor, plainly while the vampire is still a tadpole. Wherefore I challenge Gore would have the right to act. this Nestor to a trial of combat. The time, place and Nestor sat stiff as a ramrod and looked at Gore. The manner of his death, I leave to him.' man was a vampire; he had put on flesh and bulked out Gore was right. Deep in Nestor's core, Vasagi's seed until he was almost as massive as a Lord; clad in heavy was as yet a tadpole. Be that as it may, already it could leather, he made two of Nestor. On the other hand, he was sense the strength of its host - and his weaknesses. But unarmed; even more important, he had no egg. Perhaps the latter only served the parasite's purposes; rather, they Nestor could talk him down. For as well as tenacious, the worked to its benefit. Nestor had no history, nothing to vampire is devious. cling to, and therefore no resistance to the seething When it seemed the tableau could hold no longer -that metamorphosis taking place within him. On the other Gore must now get up, come round the table, dispose of hand, his vampire had no real 'intelligence' as such; as yet Nestor and claim his rights - that was when Nestor spoke. embryonic, its sole purpose was to enhance the darker But even now alien stuff was at work in him, and as well facets of its host, while simultaneously blunt- as being tenacious and full of guile, in 95 94 circumstances like these the vampire is often abrupt and The bolt took Gore dead centre between the eyes, aggressive: caved in the bridge of his nose, smashed through his 'It happened much as Wran told it,' he began, in a voice brain and only came to a halt when its head bit through deep, dark and arresting, 'yet also as you have it, Gore the back of his skull in a splintering of bone and splash Sucksthrall. I was coming to Starside, the last aerie, to be of blood. Dead in mid-air, or as dead as a vampire can be a Lord. Except I believed I already was Wamphyri — or while still he has a head, his mouth chomped and had been — and I had forgotten or been robbed of my drooled vacuously as he flew. But his eyes no longer inheritance. Why, I still believe it, even now! It was as if I saw, and his outstretched hands were limp as rags. cried out to be Wamphyri! All of which I made known to Nestor stepped lithely aside as Gore crashed down Wran the Rage. And I'm in Wran's debt, it's true, for in his upon the polished stone floor and skidded to a crumpled own sweet way he . . . reminded me, of certain halt. Possibly he could survive even now, as a crippled procedures. So that however you would have it, the fact mute if nothing else. Certainly his metamorphic flesh remains that I am now Wamphyri! And I caution you, and bones would heal, and part of the brain repair itself Gore: be my thrall and live, or —' at least. But Nestor's vampire nature was stirring to life, 'Or?' Gore was on his feet. 'What? I should become and he wasn't about to allow that. These Lords and Lady your thrall ... or?' He was grey as lead, puffed up, bloated harboured doubts about his fitness to be one of them. with rage and lust. Lust for Nestor's blood, egg, life, all Well, he was Wamphyri, and now as good a time as any three. He licked his lips greedily, knotted his fists into to show them! clubs at his sides, thrust his head forward menacingly. For There was one large knife on the table for carving. a moment his eyes stood out like yellow plums in his face. Nestor could take Gore's head if he wanted it. But he saw Then ... another, far easier way. . . . He moved! But as for coming round the table, Astonishingly, the fallen lieutenant had pushed himself nothing so refined. Gore Sucksthrall took the shortest up onto all fours. He was kneeling there, head-down, route and came over it! slopping blood and brains, and shaking like a palsied Platters large and small went flying, jugs of wine were dog. And a stream of slurred, stuttering, meaningless hurled aside, as the lieutenant swung up onto the table, words or noises was issuing from his morbidly grimacing took one pace forward, and crouched down to launch mouth. Nestor dropped his crossbow to the floor, went to himself full in Nestor's face. Nestor came to his feet, him, grasped his topknot with both hands and dragged knocking his chair on its side as he threw himself him to a window. On hands and knees, Gore skidded in backwards. And in his few remaining seconds, he loaded blood, drool, and brain fluid forward onto a fretted his crossbow. Roaring with rage, Gore was already in cartilage balcony. Nestor got behind him, put a foot mid-flight; too late he saw the weapon in Nestor's hand; firmly on his backside, and shoved. Part of the balcony Nestor didn't have time or need to aim but merely pointed shattered, and Gore took the pieces with him into space. ... and pulled the trigger! Out there, close to three thousand feet of unresisting 96 97 air, and at its bottom the scree jumbles, dirt and solid musingly answered, Those stories you've heard are true, rock. When he hit, Gore Sucksthrall would shatter into so aye.' Except she wasn't looking at Wran but at Nestor. much mush and a fistful of jellied pieces. Gorvi the The newcomer was made of the right stuff. She could Guile's flightless guardian warriors would snarl and feel it in him. Why, given time, she might even feel him in threaten over what few morsels they could salvage ... her! And that was a pleasant thought (if one she kept Nestor turned from the window, and on his way back guarded); for her male thralls, handsome creatures though to the table picked up his crossbow. Gorvi, malicious as some of them might be, were like mice in her bed, timid ever, was the first to find his voice. Pointing at Nestor's and creeping. When Nestor was fully ascendant, it was weapon, he said, That is forbidden! Not only in Wrath- possible he'd make a worthy lover .. . not to mention an spire, but even throughout the entire aerie.' ally . . . Canker slapped the table and barked, 'But we all knew Wratha gave herself a mental shake, and turned her he had it. He's Szgany, isn't he? This is how they arm gaze to Wran. 'I was Szgany, and ascended in Tur- themselves. Szgany, aye, and a mere youth. It's just that gosheim by my wits alone. When others would destroy we knew - or we supposed - that he'd never have the guts me, I destroyed my so-called "master" and took his egg. to use it!' All true . . . as is what I said but a moment ago: it's the Nestor stood by his toppled chair, lifted his crossbow getting there that counts.' by its tiller overhead and said, 'If this weapon offends 'Well?' Wran cried. 'And hasn't Nestor got there?' you, then it likewise offends me. So be it.' And he 'No.' She shook her head. 'Not yet a while. For being brought it down shatteringly on the table's rim, so as to here and surviving here are different things. But ... break it into pieces. 'In any case, I've no more use for it. certainly he's on his way.' Then, nodding her approval Not now that I have Vasagi's gauntlet.' And turning to and looking at them all in turn, Spiro, Canker, Gorvi, Canker Canison: 'You are wrong, Canker. Perhaps I was Wran, and lastly Nestor, finally she said: Szgany, but no more.' 'My Lords, I give you Lord Nestor of the Wamphyri - All of these had been good moves; coming in quick perhaps. But what say you?' succession, and startling, they had fixed the attention of Canker accepted him readily enough. 'You must visit the others about the table. Frowning, they stared at Nestor me in Mangemanse,' he barked. 'By all means come and in silence for long seconds. Then Wran grinned, however inspect my instrument of bones!' lopsidedly, and looked along the table at Wratha. 'Lady,' Wran and Spiro were well satisfied but didn't wish to he said, 'I recall you were saying something about your display it, and so answered in unison, cautiously, 'Let's own ascension? If the stories I've heard are true, that, too, wait and see how all works out.' was a bloody affair.' Gorvi scowled, and said: 'It seems I'm a minority of On another occasion Wratha might well have taken one. But ... very well, Nestor is a Lord - with one proviso! offence, and even now it was her instinct to say: 'Oh, and We'll give him five sunups and if he doesn't fit, then he what of your own and Spiro's and Gorvi's?' But for the goes back to Sunside. And to certain death.' moment her thoughts were elsewhere, so that she 98 99 Wratha looked at Nestor and said, 'Well?' in his wake, tongue lolling, for all the world like some He shrugged. 'I've no complaints.' grotesque, upright dog. But in no way a 'pet'. And yet in 'Good!' she said. And to the others, lifting her goblet, some ways that, too. For whenever Nestor paused, Canker 'A toast, then. To Lord Nestor of Suckscar: a successful would likewise come to a halt and cock his head on one side, as if he waited on some command or other! On the ascension!' 'Success!' they chorused, lifting their jacks, Gorvi with other hand, his half-human expression was difficult to gauge; Nestor had seen similar looks on the faces of some ill-grace. But before drinking, he couldn't resist wolves tracking their prey. adding: 'Success, aye. Or whatever .. .' Through Wratha's launching bays they went, down massive stairs chiselled from the bed of a sloping shaft, However alien in aspect Vasagi had been, Wratha the towards the uppermost of Suckscar's levels. Here the Risen had regarded him as something of an ally; hence his habitation of the levels closest to her own. Now, as brothers Killglance proceeded cautiously indeed, prompting Nestor to inquire: 'A problem?' Wran's reception broke up, the Killglance brothers offered to accompany the newcomer down into Suckscar Glancing back at him in the gloom of the unlit stairwell, before returning to their flyers. Spiro scowled and impatiently replied, 'What? And didn't Canker, whose Mangemanse levels lay directly below you see Wratha's warriors? Do you think she's the only Nestor's, went with them. Coming up, he'd used exterior one who keeps guardians like that? Well let me tell you we causeways, covered ledges, and dizzy bridges suspended all have them, and so did Vasagi!' from the underside of various flying buttresses. He could Canker at once put a hand on Nestor's shoulder, and have flown, of course, but that would have meant thrusting his muzzle forwards snarled at Spiro, Then you saddling a flyer, a launching, landing, etcetera. And should let Nestor go first! He has Vasagi's egg, after all. Canker, having only just remembered his appointment, And just as I sniffed it out, so shall they. Why, anyone had been late enough already. On the spur of the moment, would suspect that Suckscar was yours now -yours and out of grudging respect for the property of another - not Wran's together - and not Nestor's at all!' to mention the very real threat of hostility from who or 'Meaning?' Wran turned swiftly in the cramped whatever the Suck had left in charge in his absence - confines of the sloping tunnel. His eyes had narrowed to Canker had chosen his vertiginous but otherwise slits of scarlet light. unobtrusive route around Suckscar. Now that he knew But Nestor intervened, squeezing forwards and replying Nestor, however, and with his permission on this on Canker's behalf, 'Meaning simply that as Suck-scar's occasion, a return descent through Suckscar seemed the new master, I shouJd go first. Canker is right.' easiest, most obvious route. 'Indeed I am,' Canker growled, following close behind. Oddly, as the four descended and Wran and Spiro led And now the brothers brought up the rear. the way, proceeding a little ahead of Nestor, Canker Nestor went a little faster; he was eager to discover the stayed very much 'to heel' behind him. Glancing back on extent of Vasagi's holdings, and just exactly what his occasion, Nestor would find the other padding along inheritance would be. And as he went he noticed 100 101 that even in the dim light of the tunnel, while he was wider than a man, and a good deal taller; eyes which fully aware of the darkness, still he could see almost as were crimson wedges in a furred, elongated head. A well as in broad daylight. Which could only be further bat, probably - or what was once a bat - yet manlike, evidence of his vampire change. too. A composite creature, bred of Vasagi's vats, retaining Eventually, reaching a landing and turning through sufficient intelligence to obey his commands. Or one thirty degrees — as light showed at the bottom of the command, at least. To guard this stairwell. shaft, where the echoes of their footsteps had preceded The thing was hard to discern; it seemed wrapped in them - so other sounds came back. But these were the darkness, shrouded in gloom, cloaked in its own smoky echoes of furtive movement. And now it was Nestor's fur. But when it thrust its half-rodent, half-human face turn to pause. forward to hiss and spit saliva, its purpose and 'No,' Canker growled in his ear. 'Go on. They will determination were obvious. And if Nestor and the recognize you. Take my word for it. You are Wamphyri!' others would go forward, the only way was past this On Sunside, Nestor had always had a way with dogs; guardian. he and his forgotten brother alike. As children, wild 'Huh!' Canker coughed in Nestor's ear, gripped his dogs had come to them out of the forest, not to harm shoulder. 'Not so grotesque. All of Vasagi's creatures them but to play; domesticated wolves, 'guard dogs', had are different . . . he was always experimenting! I've not permitted the very roughest of rough-and-tumbling seen this one before. But go forward, present yourself.' without turning on them; wild wolves in the hills had sat The monster was three paces away, still mainly still at their approach, and not slunk but moved hidden in its own gloom and that of the archway. cautiously, almost reluctantly out of their path. Nestor Nestor took one tentative step along the now horizontal had never made anything of it; it was simply that canine corridor - and the guardian flowed out of its niche, creatures trusted him, and he in turn trusted them and blocking the way! Also, it became more nearly visible. It was unafraid. And it was the same now with Canker was cloaked in darkness: in black, leathery Canison. Nestor believed what Canker said. And he membranous wings which folded across its body, understood why this - what, this monster? -stuck so overlapping. But where the folds hugged closest to close to him. Out of nothing, a relationship had been flesh, there the darkness was alive with pink, wriggling formed. Nestor wasn't sure if he appreciated it or not, but worms! he trusted it, certainly. Now the creature's jaws cracked open and yawned He went unafraid down the stairwell to the bottom, wide, and its teeth were visible like row upon row of only pausing when something stirred and flowed long white needles, receding into its scarlet throat. Teeth forward in a narrow archway at the very foot of the like that could strip a man's flesh to the bone, leaving stairs. And 'something' was as good a way as any of his face or limbs flensed in a moment. But even now the describing it! It was different again from one of Wratha's thing was not as awesome as Wratha's guardian beasts. personal guardians: black as night, shaped like a bat You are mine! Nestor told it. I have Vasagi's egg. hanging from a ceiling, but upright, with its head at the Stand aside, for I would pass. Likewise these men with top; 102 103 me, who are my friends ... for now at least. He took and Canker went on. And behind them, the thing in the another breathless pace forwards - dark archway opened its flaps again, lashed its tentacles - And the creature flowed to meet him! and hissed menacingly as Wran and Spiro followed Its wings opened, but they were not wings. From its - until Nestor turned and cautioned it: Be quiet.' Did I not forearms and underarms, down the sides of its body to its say that these men were with me? knees or where knees would be in a man, a thick webbing And as the thing fell silent and shrank back, so the four of flesh formed furry blankets which were like wings on proceeded down into Suckscar ... both sides of the creature's body. Superficially, they were wings. But in reality, they were traps! At the end of the short corridor, two more of Vasagi's On Sunside there were flowers which functioned creatures were tethered in niches set back a little from the similarly; they had spined, fleshy petals that closed on main passage. They were not too unlike Wratha's personal insect victims to devour them. But this thing wasn't guardians: brutal, ferocious things that howled and designed to devour insects - and the Sunside flowers gibbered, tearing at their chains as Nestor and the others weren't intelligent and mobile! came into view. Their new master spoke to them at once, Under the 'wings' before they closed on Nestor, he saw saying: that the pink worms were merely the tips of a nest of 'I am the Lord Nestor of the Wamphyri. Vasagi's egg lashing tentacles based around the dark orifice of a - and all of Vasagi's things - are mine. Now what is this grinding, suctorial mouth. The thing had two mouths, commotion? Desist . . . or suffer!' It was enough; the only one of which was in its face. Then the tentacles warriors sniffed him out and at once fell silent, shuffling locked him in, trapping his arms and crushing him to that uncomfortably in their places. more immediate mouth where its huge, quivering lips Wran and Spiro were frankly astonished. Being tasted him! Wamphyri, of course they too could have calmed the For a moment — a single moment — Nestor was deaf, beasts ... given sufficient time to threaten, cajole, and dumb, and blind. He was nauseated by the smell of rotting work on them. But Nestor had no experience of such meat, the stench of an open stomach, the slick feel on his things; even with Vasagi's egg, still he was a newcomer skin of some bio-acidic solution. A single moment . .. here; and yet he instinctively, almost automatically fitted before the guardian released him, folded its flaps and into place. 'Yes,' Wran told him, 'I think you'll do very flowed back from him in a confused fashion, blinked well indeed, in Suckscar.' But his scarlet eyes were furnace eyes hesitantly, then shuffled backwards into its shrouded. For it seemed to Wran that perhaps Nestor niche and cowered down. would do just a little too well here ... Nestor might have staggered a little, but Canker had Thralls and lieutenants alike had heard the rowing come forward and was holding his elbow. 'Excellent!' the warriors. Two of the latter came at the run just as Nestor dog-thing growled. 'Vasagi's beast acknowledges its new and the others entered Suckscar's main hall. They were master.' massive men, as are all the chosen lieutenants of the Nestor's skin was crawling from head to toe, but he Wamphyri, so that Nestor felt dwarfed 104 105 between his three companions and these newcomers. loud crack! Then, as Zahar howled and fell to his knees, But the lieutenants, seeing Canker, Wran and Spiro, Nestor kicked him as hard as he could in the throat, which skidded to a halt, looked at each other, and approached served to silence him and send him sprawling. In another more cautiously. moment, Nestor was down beside him on one knee, While they were still out of earshot, Canker whined, pinning his topknot to the stone floor; and in the next the 'Now comes the real test. For these are not dumb beasts sharp point of Nestor's six-inch knife was pricking the but men, and they have brains that think. Better let me bulge of the lieutenant's throbbing Adam's apple. handle it, for now at least.' Before, the knife in Nestor's belt had seemed barely 'Who goes there?' said one, the biggest of the two. significant; a piffling toothpick, the Wamphyri Lords and 'You Lords are trespassers! Unless Gore Sucksthrall Lady had ignored it. Like his crossbow, he wouldn't dare accompanies you - and possibly even then - you have consider using it against such as them. Ah, but their no business here. Vasagi would never have deigned to thralls were a different matter! invite you.' He pointed at Nestor and scowled. 'And 'Gore Sucksthrall is dead!' Nestor snarled. 'I killed what, pray, is that?' him! Now swear allegiance to me - and at once - or Despite Canker's warning, Nestor narrowed his eyes follow him into eternity!' and made to step forward; but the dog-thing got in his 'Gak ... gak ... urk1' said Zahar, holding up a trembling way. 'You lads had better listen,' he coughed. The hand and arm. It might have been threatening or pleading, Suck's no more, for Wran the Rage killed him. Which I that hand, for it was the one with a dangling digit; don't need to tell you, for I'm sure someone at least whichever, Nestor couldn't take any chances. He slashed must have been at a window, waiting for Vasagi to at the tendons in the joint of the elbow, which showed return out of Sunside. Ah, but while the Suck is gone, through where leather sleeves came together, and the arm his egg goes on, for it fled into Nestor here - or the Lord flopped uselessly to the floor. And fast as thought, Nestor Nestor, to you.' caught the crippled hand and took the finger, so that its Their mouths fell open. But after a moment the bigger stump had barely started to spurt as he came lithely to his one spoke up again. 'Oh, really? And this one's come to feet. claim Suckscar, right? Well, Lords Canker, Wran, Spiro, Zahar writhed like a crippled snake on the floor, no disrespect to you, but I am Zahar, Third-in-Command in hissing and coughing but making no sensible noises Suckscar after Gore. And I say to you that I myself whatsoever. His inability to answer made no difference, could eat this one!' He prodded Nestor in the chest with a for as Nestor now told him: 'Good! Then you are now my hard finger. 'And as for when Gore Sucksthrall sees man. Now watch!' And he deliberately gashed his own him ...' thumb, and let the blood drip into the joint of Zahar's arm He threw back his head and laughed, and went to prod and onto his bloody hand. 'See now: blood of my own Nestor again. But Nestor was lightning fast; he caught the Wamphyri flesh. The power of renewal, so that your arm offending finger in a clenched fist and bent it back all in may heal itself and your hand be whole one movement, so that it broke with a 106 107 again. Why, I have even honoured you, Zahar; you could boulder plains, to take your chances with the lowest of as well be a bloodson . .. well, of sorts! But my bloodson the low and live like a trog in a crevice. How shall it be?' and not Vasagi's, for Vasagi is no more. And so a fatherly Grig looked at the bloody finger in his grey hand, then word of warning: from this time forward cower as you at Zahar who had struggled to a seated position, where approach me! And when you stand in my presence, be now he was bent forward, rocking himself to and fro and sure to make no threatening movements. For if you do, moaning. And finally: 'Lord,' he told Nestor, 'Zahar is my the first will be the last. Remember: even now you would friend ...!' be dead, except I need you to run my manse.' 'Friend? Friend?" Nestor looked astonished. 'And am I Nestor turned his back on the writhing, crippled Zahar to be known as the Lord Nestor, who gives shelter to and faced the second of the two. And he saw how Canker friends? No, I desire no friends in my house but only ' ad held him back, when he might have come to Zah^; s thralls and obedient lieutenants - who eat or go hungry at aid. Then, raising an eyebrow, as if in faint surprise, my command!' He stared hard, severely at the other. 'For Nestor said: 'What's this? Do you molest a man of mine, the last time, then: what's it to be?' Canker?' Canker released the lieutenant at once, and There and then Grig ate Zahar's finger. And because Nestor offered his hand and forearm in the old Szgany Nestor held his gaze the while, he scarcely grimaced at greeting. all. . . The other was young, not long out of Sunside; but already he was inches taller than Nestor, broad, well- muscled, grey of flesh and feral-eyed: a vampire in his own right. Not Wamphyri, no, but given a hundred years he might be. If he lived. He spoke up, but falter-ingly: 'I'm Grig Sucksthrall. . . or I was.' He sensed the authority in Nestor - and possibly the presence of Vasagi's egg, too — and was awed and disadvantaged by the hot eyes of so many Lords looking on. Then, remembering the ways of Sunside, he fum- blingly went to grasp Nestor's preferred forearm. But no, Nestor grasped Grig's hand instead and pressed Zahar's severed digit into his palm. And as Grig's jaw dropped, Nestor told him: 'Eat it! Accept my food and live, and take shelter with me in Suckscar - or deny me now and suffer the consequences. But what's this? Do you tremble? Ah, don't worry! I shall not kill you but set you free on the 108 where common thralls dwelled in caverns in the outer immensity of the perimeter wall, and a sweeping rock- IV hewn staircase the width of the hall itself led up to Vasagi the Suck's once-private chambers. At the top and Suckscar to the sides of the staircase were warriors or guardians of a unique design, which in function were similar to the creature in the stairwell encountered during the descent from Wratha's landing-bays. They looked like thick brown rugs sewn up from the skins of bears, but rugs Nestor sent Grig and Zahar off to tend to the^ latter's don't creep. damaged hand and arm. And then the four Lords As Nestor had climbed the stairs, so these creatures explored Suckscar. had flowed inwards along the upper steps, closing on Wran, Spiro, and Canker had all been here before -but him. But their stealth was such that when, half-way up, just the once - the day they arrived here along with he paused to stare at them ... the things were only rugs Wratha, Vasagi and their lieutenants, a handful of flyers again! At which Canker Canison, who accompanied and another of warriors, out of the east. Then, mainly at Nestor, had sniffed the air and gone more cautiously, Wratha's direction or insistence (the great stack had been pointing out: 'More of the Suck's things, aye. He was a sorely in need of repairs and maintenance, which she'd master of metamorphism, that one ...' wanted set to rights at once), they'd moved in and laid Then Nestor had climbed diagonally, almost claim to the various levels. And Suckscar had become threateningly, towards the closest of the two guardians, Vasagi's. commanding it: Come on then, and we'll see what He had named the five levels which made up his manner of creature you are/ And creepingly, silently, the section of the stack out of admiration for their dramatic creature had flowed down from above; likewise its twin external appearance: they were deeply scarred from front on the other side, converging on him ... to back (or south to north) with massive downward ... Until the last moment, when suddenly they reared slanting gouges, almost as if the sun rising over the up! And then Nestor saw just how thick they were: like barrier mountains had steamed their outer layers away doughy blankets of flesh - like great bears, yes, but with like vampire flesh. But in fact the sun had never risen so their skeletal frames extruded and their flesh spread out, high as to light on Suckscar's levels; it was simply the thick in the centre and thin as membrane at the edges - result of the natural tilt of the rock layers, which were with great bands of grey muscle rippling on the somewhat softer here, and the weathering of centuries underside. And bearlike in their general structuring, too, and even millennia. Now these five levels, set except their legs and arms were boneless, supported only immediately over Canker Canison's Mangemanse, by springy cartilage; but sufficiently agile to lift and belonged to Nestor, and he explored them eagerly. thrust themselves upon hapless victims. In the first level he saw the great communal hall, More: Nestor saw their mouths. Like the guardian in 110 111 heel as they went up to Vasagi's old rooms over the great the stairwell, they had more than sufficient of those; or hall. Behind them, Wran and Spiro were nowhere in precisely sufficient, considering Vasagi's purpose in sight. They were exploring on their own, a fact which had creating them. For all these creatures consisted of was not gone unnoticed by Nestor. As well to suffer their mouth, stomach and crushing muscle, and tiny red eyes, rudeness ... for now at least. hidden in the topside fur. The mouths were many, small, At the top of the wide flight, cartilage balconies red and suctorial, without teeth that Nestor could see; or extended left and right, grafted to ledges in the rock if they were toothed then these were small and which spanned half-way across the great hall just below inconspicuous; but the drool which they issued smoked the ceiling. Up here, Nestor would be able to move about, where it touched stone, so that Nestor knew it was acidic. keeping watch over the industries of common thralls and And then he understood. lieutenants alike. Tunnels in the walls at the rear of the Wrapped in a creature such as this, a man would be ledges led to lesser rooms, galleries, storehouses, dizzy completely immobilized - fixed like a fly in honey, observation platforms supported by cartilage buttresses, smothered and softened by digestive juices - and finally and landing bays and stables in the outer 'skin' of the slurped away until his flensed bones were discarded in a aerie, whose rock had been worn into those deep and clattering heap! But Nestor was no such victim. impressive scars for which the manse was named. From His egg, by now the merest tadpole of a leech, was the outermost turret, looking hard right (due south), strong and growing stronger by the moment. Its strength Nestor spied the barrier mountains golden in their peaks, was Nestor's, who was strong in his own right. Suck- while on high the clouds over teetering Wrathspire were scar's guardian creatures had been Vasagi's and now were lined with silver and hazy with deadly sunlight. Such his, all of them. And they must be made to understand observations helped with his orientation: temporal, spatial that he'd suffer no more threats, not in his own house! and mundane, all three. For just as he had begun to think Standing his ground, he coughed up a great gob of of himself as invincible, he was reminded of his mortality phlegm to spit into the poisonous heart of the monster and the sun's destructive power. And when he'd rearing before him! And turning on his heel, he pointed a momentarily considered himself magnificent, the stack's commanding, threatening finger and issued a mind-blast awesome majesty had reduced him to a flea. From which that sent the other beast shrinking back from him: time forward his excitement was somewhat reduced .. . BEGONE! This was as well, for after the view from the platforms, Something of Vasagi was in him, and just like the landing-bays and bartizans, Nestor found Vasagi's rooms Suck's other weird constructs, these things knew it. They something of a disappointment; patently the Suck had not collapsed like piles of fur to the steps, and bellied back been one for luxuries but within Wamphyri parameters from Nestor, grovellingly to their accustomed places. And had been satisfied with a life of austerity. His bed was of now there was no one and nothing in Suckscar to say no stone slabs raised up, with a large depression hollowed in him. the middle and filled with Canker was impressed, and followed even closer to 112 113 the cured furs of Sunside animals. Beneath the bed was a pillaging, surely? But I am the master here, and all that is fire hole containing a few scattered ashes. A blackened here is mine. Would they dare?' bone flue angled off from the head of the bed to join with Canker snorted. 'Wratha was right: being here and another above a massive fireplace in the vastly thick outer existing here are different things. Unless you are sure of wall. In a curtained corner niche, a dark-stained hole a person or thing, never invite him or it into your house! angled down into the floor, from which issued the If you must, make sure he, or it, enters of his own free occasional draught of fresh air. It was just as well that the will. Which is to say: he faces the consequences of any other end of this hole vacated in some lofty, inaccessible transgressions, whether of his making or of yours! exit over the abyss, for it had been Vasagi's toilet. Letting the brothers in here, why, that was like giving From another room, hewn deeper into the stack's porous them a licence to work their will! Remember: Wran the outer sheath, a large, deep, circular window fitted with Rage killed Vasagi. Already he may consider himself cartilage baffles gazed out in a north-easterly direction, entitled to whatever's on offer, while you as yet merely showing on the one hand the barrier range dwindling into aspire.' He shrugged. 'In my way, I tried to warn you.' distance, and on the other the far, dark-blue sheen of the 'From now on I shall value your warnings,' Nestor told aurora-lit Icelands horizon. There were rooms with him. 'But right now I may require your help! Here they wooden tables and chairs, and others with benches cut in come.' the walls. A large sloping hall was enclosed behind an Wran and Spiro had emerged from one of the tunnels east-facing wall with a row of window holes admitting a into the great hall. Behind them, they dragged female maximum of light - and of air! Before being walled-in, thralls with their clothes stripped mainly from them and this draughty gallery had been one of the manse's great hanging in rags. The women were vociferous in their scars; during the period of Vasagi's occupation at least, it protests; here in Suckscar, they knew what was their had become his studio. This was where the Suck had lot. . . but in Madmanse? worked on the 'designs' of his metamorphic creatures, Hurrying towards Wran, Spiro, and their struggling before he gave them life in his vats. And as Nestor prizes, Zahar and Grig went to intercept. Back from examined the huge and intricate paintings, he felt glad seeing to the former's wounds, they seemed affronted by Vasagi had not invested oJJ of them in flesh. the twins' rapaciousness. But these were the Kill-glance The east wing of this one level had now been explored, brothers, Lords of the Wamphyri; if things turned nasty, and Nestor and Canker returned to the sweeping staircase Nestor's lieutenants wouldn't stand a chance. Still, it said down into the great hall. But as they descended a cry rang a lot for Zahar that even with a dangling arm and out, and Canker was galvanized into activity. 'Hah! I had damaged hand he now knew where his loyalties lay. For expected it,' he growled. 'The brothers Killglance, the moment at least... scavenging!' Laughing, the Lords faced down the would-be defenders 'What?' Nestor looked at him. 'You can only mean of Suckscar; but Spiro grew calm in a moment, his grin becoming a scowl as Zahar and Grig drew closer. 114 115 Zahar: 'Man, if you persist in blocking my way, there's a Until at last he queried: 'Oh? And is there a problem?' very strong chance I'll eat your heart right here and now, Giving his captive a back-hander in the face, he sent her off this immaculately clean floor.' skittering among a crowd of cowering thralls where 'Gentlemen,' Nestor growled, coming upon them. 'I see they'd emerged from their various places. So far, Suck- you found my women, and picked out two of the scar's 'people' had kept well out of it; they had guessed comeliest to show me what is my get. That was thoughtful that the Lord Vasagi was no more, but had not known of you. But now, alas, matters have come to a head and I the nature of their new master. Curiosity is a powerful must show you off my property. As you see, two of my force, however, especially among vampires. A good many creatures are here to make sure you have not forgotten of them were here now, anxious to discover what was the way out.' And in his mind: Rear up! Menace them! their lot. Issue your smoking juices! 'Make or break!' Canker coughed in Nestor's ear, He stepped aside, Canker likewise — and the where they too closed on the frozen tableau. 'It's come guardians of the staircase at once flowed forward, reared sooner than I thought. Gore Sucksthrall was the best of upright, presented their muscular underbellies and dripped Vasagi's men, and he's dead. These others are useless to acid! Wran released his captive; both he and his brother you, and the Killglance brothers are fiends in a fight. I . . . crouched down, looked this way and that; their crimson I like your cut, Nestor, but this is not my problem. It's up eyes now blazed with fires so hot they almost smoked. to you now: a "diplomatic solution" - cowardice, if you Then: like - or a beating, and possibly death.' 'Do ... you ... threaten?' No longer a 'gentleman', Wran 'Or something else,' Nestor answered, in a voice empty looked about to explode, indeed to rage. of emotion, cold as the winds off the Icelands. 'Watch Threaten?' Nestor put on a surprised expression. 'In your back.' what way? I merely provide you with an escort from my 'Eh?' Canker glanced to the rear, and saw Nestor's place. For as I have said, matters are coming to a head.' furry familiars flowing across the hall's flags behind 'What matters?' Spiro snarled, clasping his brother's them. arm as if to hold him in place. 'Even without you,' Nestor told him in that same 'Why, only that the sun is up,' Nestor answered. emotionless voice, 'I am not alone. And I'm not about to 'You've a little time to spare, of course, but if you would be beaten.' collect your flyers from Wratha's landing-bay, and return to Canker paused a moment, then threw back his head to Madmanse without - inconvenience - then it's time you howl like a mad thing and shake from head to toe. And were on your way.' catching up with Nestor, he said: 'Why, now I like your Wran's captive had wriggled away from him; she hid cut even more, my crafty Lord Nestor - not to mention behind Nestor, clutching his jacket. The brothers fumed; the odds! Very well, we stand together.' they glared at each other, at Canker, and at Nestor with 'Well?' Spiro took a threatening pace towards Grig, his knife in his belt, but mainly at his familiars. Wran who had now come to a halt. and Spiro were not equipped for war, and even Nestor's And Wran — still smiling, for the moment - told 116 117 common thralls had now taken heart, hissing and creeping closer. 'Hah.'' Spiro snarled. 'Not a threat?' 'In no way,' Nestor places. He stepped up onto a table and turned in a circle, answered. 'I invited you in here, and you entered of letting all of them see him clearly. Their babble ceased in your own free will. What sort of hospitality, to threaten a moment. you now? Also, Wran is responsible for my being here. I 'Look well,' he told them, 'and remember: I am the would be in his debt - except of course, I saved his life Lord Nestor, Master of Suckscar. You are my people. on Sunside, and so we're even. And while we talk the Should there be those among you who do not wish to be sun is risen, soon to burn on Wrathspire. I was mine, who may not desire my food, protection, or the thinking of your safety, and only that.' comforts of my house, then by all means choose a Wran took a deep breath, held it a moment, then window and make your exit. For in future, that is how I slapped his thigh and burst out laughing, however shall punish any rebellious creature of mine: a long last harshly. 'A prodigy!' he cried, through gritted teeth. 'A screaming flight, and a few stains on the scoriae scree. So babe out of Sunside, grown to a man in a single morning, much for mere dissension ... but as for treachery or and master now of an aerie manse! Well, and didn't I say insurgence -' He let his gaze wander, to settle on his you'd do well in Suckscar?' carpet creatures where they flowed with scarcely a ripple 'Indeed you did.' Nestor gestured to indicate the way up the stairs to their accustomed places. '- The guardians out, and in so doing cleared a path for them across the of my staircase have their needs ... floor of the great hall, towards the tunnel stairs to 'And so I make it simple: my word is law. One law for Wratha's landing-bays. 'And so I shall. But each of us all, and whosoever breaks it gets broken in his turn. So be in his own place, and yours is in Madmanse.' it.' The brothers left; they took their time walking across Nestor looked down on the faces closest to the table, the floor, but they left. Behind them, Nestor's staircase and said, 'Canker, Zahar, Grig.' He held out his arms to guardians flowed across the flags, leaving a whiff of help them up. And of Canker: This one, Canker Cani-son, acid stench in the air. And ahead of them: Master of Mangemanse, is my friend.' He held up his Nestor sent a thought to the dark-furred bat-thing in hand. 'Ah, no, it bestows no privileges upon him but its archway niche. The men who approach: Jet them merely grants that Canker is not my enemy! You will pass, then spit at them, hiss, and shepherd them up and respect him but not obey him.' Canker shrugged, grinned, out of Suckscar! From this time forward, they shall not and nodded appreciatively. pass again. 'As for these two,' Nestor glanced at Zahar and Grig Nestor's male and female thralls, his lieutenants, most each in turn, 'they are my lieutenants, whose word next to of his people - and all of them vampires - were gathered mine is law. Zahar is the senior and my right-hand man; to him now. Knowing that things were afoot, they'd his arm shall grow stronger, and his hand yet more heavy.' converged on the great hall from their various work Nestor considered what he had said and nodded. He was satisfied. But one final command, and a warning, seemed in order. 'I shall see you about, and you shall 118 119 see me ... but when you least expect it. And now it seems known you that long at least. Also, it's my instinct that your various works go wanting, while you stand idle and you'll be fascinated by that which these so-called gawping. Let him who has no work learn how to fly, and "colleagues" of ours despise. And it will be splendid to quickly!' have a visitor in Mangemanse who I can trust.' The crowd dispersed, hastened by Zahar and Grig, who 'As soon as I've at least stuck my head in each got down among them from the table. Only the two corridor, room, hall and workshop, then I shall visit you,' mistreated vampire women held back, examining their Nestor promised. 'No matter the hour.' bruises and glancing sideways at Nestor. He saw that 'Excellent!' Canker was delighted. 'I shall expect you they were young and very beautiful, and said to them, before nightfall.' 'Vasagi's rooms were cold, but mine will be warm. His 'And should I enter of my own free will?' Nestor's hearth has no fire, and his bed is hard. These things are voice was cold, his expression blank. mine now. Put them in order, and wait for me . ..' Canker looked at him, stared into his eyes. Perhaps A moment later, when they were alone, Canker danced there was a hint of red in them even now, as early as this. like a dog on its hind legs and chortled, 'Excellent, all 'Tut-tut! We are friends!' excellent.' And I no longer fear for you. The surly Suck's 'As Wran was my friend?' no more, and my new neighbour is much to my liking. 'No, as I am your friend!' Why I can see us now: scampering like pups on Sunside, 'So be it,' said Nestor. chasing the chickens to and fro!' He became serious, and 'Very well,' Canker answered. 'Now we proceed whined pleadingly, 'But now let me beg you, come down directly to your nethermost level, where I shall show you with me into Mangemanse and see my great work: that the stairwell and pass down into Mangemanse. And on instrument fashioned of bones, with which I'll lure my the way down, I'll advise my creatures as you suggest.' silver mistress down from the moon.' Nestor looked all about the great hall. A few thralls Nestor considered it for a moment, then shook his were busy in a kitchen to one side; a female swept the head. 'Later, perhaps - if you'll show me the way down floor; industrious sounds echoed from various side- and promise to speak on my behalf to whatever guards tunnels and passageways. The Lord Nestor had issued a the way! But first I must explore all of Suckscar. For after warning against sloth, and it was obvious that his people all, this is just one level. I've now seen the east wing of had taken it seriously. just one level, and the north, south, and west wings still 'Zahar!' he called out, as Canker led the way towards a unseen! And four more levels to go!' It was hard to keep stone-hewn stairwell. 'Attend me.' And to Canker: 'I need the elation out of his voice. The vampire is territorial; him. When you have gone, he shall accompany me on my Nestor's territories, along with his expectations, were tour of Suckscar.' expanding fast. 'Good!' said the other. That way, you will seem to Canker was downcast. 'Ah! Of course. But already it have purpose and not be seen wandering aimlessly.' seems you've been here forever, and I feel that I have 'I do have purpose!' Nestor retorted. 'I shall be seen to be interested in everything, and where things don't work, 120 121 level, all accurately marked with the location of every they shall be put to rights. Even if they do work, but I room, chamber, hall, whatever. With arrows showing don't like the way they work, I shall change them.' north, south, etcetera, and all landmark curiosities clearly 'A new broom sweeps clean,' said Canker. 'And a new displayed. For it strikes me a man could get lost in Lord of the Wamphyri commands respect.' He shook his Suckscar, which would never do. But with a map, I may head and frowned, and great shaggy red eyebrows met check my route before I go abroad from my rooms. Is all over the bridge of his nose. 'But still I can't get over how understood?' quickly you're settling in. Maybe there's more to that story 'Yes, Lord,' Zahar answered. 'I know a man, a thrall. of yours than meets the eye: about your having been On Sunside he drew maps of the Traveller trails. Wamphyri before, and forgotten it. Could it be you're Likewise here in Suckscar, except he drew them for someone's bloodson, I wonder? Is it possible that Vasagi. When the Suck raided, he knew where he was somewhere in your ancestry some Lord took a Sunside going.' girl, and the issue had nothing of the vampire in him 'Good!' said Nestor. 'A useful man, that. Later, you except the desire to be Wamphyri?' must send him to me.' And after a moment, 'Now tell me, Nestor nodded, shook his head, shrugged. 'I don't Zahar, where should I look first?' He sounded tired now, know. 'You could be right. But I do know this: if I haven't and Zahar noted the fact ... also that they were quite alone always been Wamphyri, certainly I have always wanted in Suckscar's nether levels. to be.' Hugging his wounded arm and hand, finally Zahar Then Zahar joined them and they proceeded down into answered, 'Vasagi's vats ... may be of interest. Creatures the lower levels ... of his - or yours, Lord - are waxing even now.' He looked at his arm and hand. And so did Nestor. The bleeding had After Canker had gone, Zahar took Nestor on his tour. stopped; Zahar's metamorphic vampire flesh was healing 'How many rooms do I have?' Nestor inquired. him; he would soon be good as new. 'You have stables, storerooms and a granary, a To the vats, then,' said Nestor. Before retiring, he slaughterhouse and cold store,' Zahar answered. 'You would see what Vasagi the Suck had fashioned. But the have kitchens and rooms for dining, quarters for your idea of bed was appealing now, and the long ^arside 'day' thralls, workshops and a laundry, and launching-bays. still lay ahead. For some time to come Nestor would You have a hall of metamorphosis, with great vats continue to sleep like a Traveller, until his change was hollowed in the floor and cages in the walls for your complete. But after that the sun (its presence in the sky warriors. And of course you have your own rooms over over Sunside) would act on him like a poisonous drug, the great hall. But how many? I doubt if anyone ever compelling him to sleep in his dark, shadowy room, with counted them, Lord!' the curtains drawn against the light. 'Oh? Then have it done,' Nestor answered at once. 'I They climbed up to the centre level, then made their want them counted, listed, and mapped.' way north-west through a maze of passageways and halls 'Mapped?' to a place where the rock was of a volcanic origin. The 'Aye, on skins. Five skins in frames, one for each ancient lava was pitted like the alveolate bones of 122 123 Nestor stepped aside, and his motion was so swift that birds; and in a vast, low-ceilinged hall, long-escaped it left Zahar stumbling a little. And merely glancing at gasses had left cavernous pits in the grained, fibrous him, Nestor said, 'What is this liquid?' floor. Except for these sunken 'vats' the floor had been At the end of the vat was a ramp sloping down and levelled; the vats had been lined with clay and sealed with disappearing into the murk and slop. It was flanked by tar from Sunside's tar pits. This was where Vasagi and narrow stone steps. Nestor moved towards that end, and doubtless many other Lords of the Old Wamphyri before behind him he heard Zahar take a deep breath. But inside him had bred their warriors and familiars. And as Zahar Nestor, his vampire was still at work, and what was had said, some of the Suck's constructs were waxing even instinct to it became instinct to him. So that even before now. Zahar spoke, he knew what the fluids were: the From a swirl of gluey fluids, a great colourless eye metamorphic juices of life! This vat was a cold womb for gazed vacuously up at Nestor where he stood at the rim of the foetal fashionings of a vampire thing. And Vasagi the a vat. The metamorphic liquid in the vat was almost Suck had been both father and mother to the contents. opaque; the creature it covered was little more than a The liquids were the white of the egg which sustains the vague outline, like a series of submerged rocks covered yellow chick, a plasma soup of lymph and protoplasm, with spines; only the quivering of the grey-green surface derived mainly from innocent blood but contaminated or told of life. And the mindless gazing and swivelling of the 'fertilized' with Vasagi's own urine, blood, spittle and eye, of course. sperm. 'A warrior,' Zahar informed quietly, tonelessly, almost as 'It is the sweet juice of forty Travellers, all squeezed by if he feared to breathe, where he stood directly behind Vasagi!' said Zahar, his throat clogged with weird Nestor at the vat's rim. 'A replacement. Vasagi lost emotion, perhaps pleasurable anticipation? 'It feeds his several in Traveller traps on Sunside. Some of the tribes creature, oils its joints, and defines its very allegiance. are very well organized under brave leaders. The Szgany Emerging from its vat, it would know him at once. In Lidesci are clever indeed, and will pay heavily for their another sunup and sundown, it will emerge ...' He let his cleverness - eventually.' voice tail off. Nestor's vampire was alert, alive, wriggling frantically in And Nestor looked at him. 'But the question is, will it his body and mind. It sharpened his previously dull and know me?' damaged wits, expanded his five mundane senses and Zahar shrugged, and struggled with himself not to awareness to their present limits, issued warnings he smile. His thoughts were sinister and Nestor knew it. He couldn't ignore. He did not need to glance over his also knew a little about Nature: the way the Travellers shoulder to know that Zahar was only an inch away, and imprint wolves by midwifing the bitches and supplanting that his good arm and hand hung down on a parallel with the dog fathers, so that the whelp grows up as guardian to Nestor's spine. He could almost feel the pent pressure in child and man. It was one of those memories which that hand and arm, and certainly he could 'hear' the deadly occasionally sprang to mind, unbidden out of a mainly design of Zahar's mind. A lunge forward, a shove, was all forgotten past. that was needed. 124 125 But who could take chances with a creature such as And leaving the thing to wax and wallow, he waded to this? What? Approach such a thing with outstretched the steps, climbed them, and stepped up onto the level hand as it woke to monstrous life and vacated its vat? floor; and stood there with the muck dripping from him in Best to imprint it now, and stamp his own seal over small puddles, gazing at Zahar with eyes as cold as the whatever remained of Vasagi's. He couldn't know it, but warrior's. But oh so much more knowing. the thought was not original to him. Or it was, but it had Take off your leather jacket,' he told him. been spurred by the process of metamorphosis taking 'What?' Zahar stepped back a pace, his Adam's apple place within him. wobbling. His eyes went from Nestor to the thing in the He looked at Zahar again. 'A man must be careful in vat and back again. 'My jacket, Lord?' this place,' he said, apparently innocently. 'It would seem 'Are you hard of hearing?' Nestor's voice was harsh. a dire thing, even perilous, to put a foot wrong and fall 'Your jacket - now!' into a vat such as this!' 'Yes, Lord!' Zahar stripped it off, let it fall. 'Indeed, Lord,' Zahar agreed, with just the suspicion of 'Now your shirt of cloth,' said Nestor. a smirk. 'Lord,' Zahar gibbered. 'You may be Wamphyri - no, you are Wamphyri, assuredly! - but I am just a common 'But -' said Nestor, his voice hardening, '- I am not a thrall. A lieutenant, aye, and a vampire of course, but just man. I am Wamphyri!' And he slowly, very deliberately a man for all that. To me these special liquids are a stripped off his clothes, even discarding his belt and poison. If I were to do as you have done and plunge knife, to step down naked into the tepid swirl and myself into them, be sure I would not surface! And even if sluggish gurgle. And fixing Zahar with his eyes, in which I did, your warrior would roll on me with its spines.' the spark of red was now grown to an ember, he moved Nestor held out a hand for the shirt. 'And yet these alongside the bulk of the waxing warrior and touched it were the things you would have wished on me, just a few with his hands. moments ago. Indeed, it was even your thought to push You are mine! he told it. All which was Vasagi's is me in! Did you think I would not know? Now one last mine! That which he was is now in me . . . I have eaten time: your shirt.' him! And you are my creature for ever and ever. The ripples in the fluids became small waves as the Zahar needed help with it; Nestor dragged the shirt warrior flexed its great body. Palps with claws which from the grey flesh of his back; for a moment they stood were as yet of soft, flexible chitin closed on Nestor, and there, the little master calm and his great thrall trembling. various appendages lifted out of the glue to clasp him -but And finally Nestor dried himself on the shirt. gently! He was .. . examined. And accepted. The thing lay This is loathsome stuff,' he said. 'I would not ask any still again, and its uppermost eye regarded Nestor with man to swim in it, and certainly not a brave and loyal something of fixation, and perhaps something of fear. lieutenant. But neither do I want it on my body.' And You are a good creature, he told it then, and I shall care smiling now, however sardonically: 'Better put on your /or you and feed you well. When you are ready to be jacket, Zahar. Why, shivering like that, you'll catch a born, call me and I shall attend to it myself ... chill.' 126 127 and perhaps a certain Lady, too - think I'm easy meat. Set 'Yes, Lord.' Zahar sighed, lowered his head in relief a watch and see to it that the men are alert. Prowl among and took up his jacket; and Nestor tossed the soiled shirt them when it is quiet, and if you catch one idling . .. aside. punish him!' 'Yes, Lord.' And dressing himself, Nestor said, 'Zahar, think on 'About Canker Canison ...' this: you had better mend your ways, and soon. There 'Yes, Lord?' will be no more warnings. The next time I have reason to 'I trust him, for now. For he's a great dog, and I have a rebuke you, I will be speaking to meat on a hook in my way with dogs. But even the best trained dog may make cold store.' mistakes. These are my orders: he is only to enter 'Yes, Lord,' Zahar said again. And he knew it was true Suckscar when I myself am to house and awake. Is that ... understood?' 'Yes, Lord.' 'Good! As for the rest: I trust Gorvi not at all. And the 'Will you sleep now, Lord?' Zahar inquired as they went brothers Killglance are deranged. Well, so is Canker for up two levels to Suckscar's great hall. that matter. But crazy like a fox, aye!' 'And the Lady 'Yes,' Nestor answered. 'My limbs ache; my head Wratha?' hurts; I'm not quite myself.' 'We shall see what we shall see. She is very beautiful.' 'It's your change,' Zahar told him. 'I've heard about Nestor was uncertain. 'She is a Lady.' such things. In some it is a long process, but you ... your 'Huh/' Zahar felt obliged to return; and, when Nestor eyes are red even now! And the morning just begun. I looked at him: 'I have heard stories, Lord.' think you will be a very powerful Lord.' 'Then tell me all,' said Nestor. 'But some other time.' They 'I'm tired,' Nestor told him, 'and yet I am not tired. My were at the foot of the staircase where it swept up to body is astir. I want to laugh, but fear I might not stop! Nestor's apartments. 'Sleep well, Lord Nestor of the Ah, but then I could cry, too, except tears are unseemly Wamphyri,' said Zahar. in Wamphyri eyes. Also, I lust after ... things, without 'Be sure of it,' Nestor answered, and climbed the stairs. A quite knowing what they are. I am proud of Suckscar —' fire burned in his hearth; there was water in an earthen he turned suddenly on Zahar, '— be sure to guard it well bowl; the two girls were in his bed, already asleep. After for me, while I sleep!' washing himself, Nestor climbed in with them. One of 'As always, Lord.' them murmured and reached for his member. He brushed 'I must have, oh, several hours of sleep. Six, seven ... her hand away. Time now for sleep. Time for the other eight should be more than enough. Then come to me and later. wake me, you or Grig. And so we shall continue until I And between the vampire girls, soft and warm and know Suckscar - and all of my thralls, and the work musty, he slept like a dead man. Or one who is undead, which they perform, and all there is to know -like the anyway ... lines in the palm of my own hand.' 'It shall be done, Lord.' 'And be aware!' Nestor told him. The other Lords - 128 129 From below, through the honeycombed rock of Suck- scar, he felt the motion of thralls where they patrolled, the V murmur of far-off voices, the hum or chitter . . . of great bats, yes! His own Desmodus colony, where they Mangemanse - Spiders - Canker's Moon Lure clustered in the crevices of a dark lodge of their own. While from outside, from above - - He could feel the sear of the sun on Wrathspire! Which was one of the several things that had awakened him. His skin, previously itchy from the touch of the musty hair of the woman sleeping behind him, now When Nestor woke up the girls were still there, still crawled. He knew that the sun was up, burning on asleep. Neither Grig nor Zahar had come to awaken Wrathspire, and that his own days of sunlight were gone him, for he had not slept out his full eight hours. The forever. thing inside him had awakened him, for it had needs of its own; rather, its needs were now Nestor's. It required to For a moment there was panic as all the memories of grow, wherefore he was required to be up and about, the last few hours of his life crowded where none had active, a vampire. And now he must take sustenance been before - as they ordered themselves and firmed from not only for himself, but also for his leech, his parasite. what might have been spumy dreamstuff into the rock of Nestor had eaten well in Wrathspire and shouldn't be reality - and he knew where and what he was. Panic, as hungry, yet deep inside him there was a different his own heart pounded a little faster, his limbs stiffened to hunger. In his stretching bones an ache; in his loins a immobility, and all of his vampire awareness reached out ripeness requiring an outlet; and in this core which he'd like a mist from him, like a presence in its own right, to never even known was a part of him, a great emptiness, gauge the day for danger. But there was no danger for this a gnawing red hunger. It was blind and it was insistent, was his place, Suck-scar, and all that it contained was his. and he knew that it was red. It was salt and it was life Everything ... and it was death .. . and undeath. Now that he was 'Umph!' The girl in front of him murmured, as she Wamphyri, it was his weird, unnatural nature. turned a little and one of her soft nipples brushed his lips. His vampire women slept on. The soft loose breasts of And for a moment he remembered Sunside. He saw it in one were in his face; the other was behind him, a leg the eye of his mind, a reflection from the screen of his draped across his thigh, the pubic covering of her impaired memory: a misty riverbank in the still of evening, not far from Brad Berea's lonely cabin in the quiescent core rough where it pressed against skin forest. The place where Brad's homely daughter Glina - which grew ever more sensitive, even to the texture of an innocent in her own right, mainly - had taught him shadows and the breath of bats. In the silence, Nestor what little he knew and used his body for her pleasure, could hear the hearts of the women pumping, the coursing while in turn giving him pleasure. of the blood in their veins. 130 131 His tongue was drawn down a convulsing throat. It had not been love (not on his part) but lust. Perhaps Resilient breasts flattened under his chest and he squeezed not even that, but need. For he was a young man, and his their bulge with his upper arms. The second girl was body an engine geared to life. But that was then and this now kneeling between his legs, rubbing Nestor's back was now, when his needs were the amplified needs of the with her breasts; her hands were under him and his Wamphyri! What had been a pulse, a throb, a fire in his partner, toying and teasing around the area of their blood ... was now an agony, a driving force, the cap of a sexual organs, manipulating both of them. Nestor volcano straining against the pent pressures of the magma moaned, wanting it to last, but it couldn't. And when he core. And these girls were not homely but very lovely. came it was as if fire jetted from him, which also They were vampires with vampire stuff in them, which activated an orgasm in his frantically writhing partner. had changed and enhanced them, even as it now enhanced 'Mine now!' sighed the second girl, catching his hips Nestor's emotions - specifically, his lust. and rolling him over. And still jerking, trickling semen, He sucked the girl's nipple into his mouth, felt it grow drowning in the sweet, singing agony of his flesh, hard, and grew hard himself between her thighs. Still Nestor felt her sucking mouth come down on him, eager sleeping, she snatched air in a sharp gasp, parted her legs, for the last drop. Then: reached down and guided him in. Her wet core was like an 'Fuck me! Me now!' she gurgled, sliding her small, automatic thing, a creature in its own right; its slippery pointed breasts up his chest in a trail of semen from sheath sucked at Nestor like a pouting mouth, so that he her mouth, lowering her moistly shuddering flesh onto need hardly move at all! Reaching down, he pushed at the his shaft, and shuffling her tight round backside in an second girl's hip until her leg slid off his thigh, then parted ecstasy of erotic motion until he had slithered in . . . her bush and sought her bud with his fingers. Her reaction So it continued, and at least one of Nestor's needs was instinctive, immediate. Gasping, she opened herself, was satisfied, but neither the first nor the last of them. A reared against him, and sucked at his hand. It was drawn need, then, and the needs of his vampire women, too. A in to the wrist, where the neck of her vulva tightened on rare day when they'd enjoyed Vasagi's so-called him like a soft leather sleeve. 'lovemaking' - feeling his organ expanding into their Nestor wanted to feel the girl he was in, to explore and bodies to fill them, while his hollow siphon proboscis know all of her. He freed his hand from the furry trap of needle-tipped chitin slid into breast, neck, cheek or behind him and heard the girl moan. She was waking up. root of tongue, to draw off blood and heighten his He rolled onto the one he faced and took the initiative, unthinkable pleasure - but they had enjoyed Nestor's. driving deeply into her flesh as if to split her. She, too, So had Nestor, despite that only one need had been was coming awake. The free girl was kissing his ear, the served ... so far. tips of her divided tongue licking and wriggling inside it, And when finally exhausted all three lay still, still while her hand moved between his legs, rolling his balls in his hunger was there, like a raw red wound inside him. her palm. Some of the metamorphic ache of flesh and bones had 132 133 subsided, yes, or been dulled by excess; but as Nestor 'and I have learned. There were things which Vasagi did, and things which he did not do. He bred vampires - not drifted into a second, deeper sleep, his nameless hunger Wamphyri! On Sunside, in the hunt, the Lords take remained ... women for their pleasure and the comforts they give; also for their blood, of course. Some of their blood. They also ... And was absent when he woke up. take men, for thralls, lieutenants, and for the provisioning Replete, he started awake! Grig's hand was on his of the manse. The difference is this: they don't kill them. shoulder. And Grig's mouth was a dark hole in his grey They take a little, give something back. The fever gets face, open as if a hinge had snapped in his jaw! into their Szgany victims, who are then brought back 'What?' said Nestor. And then he saw what. here or make their own way. Or they are discovered by His women had not woken up. The one with the small, the Travellers and put to death on Sun-side. Except . . .' firm breasts lay there, breathing but feebly, ashen and He searched for words, and Nestor grew impatient. 'Yes, cold, completely exposed where Grig had laid back the except?' bedcovers. But the other was motionless, corpse-like, without a breath of life in her body. 'Except, if a man or woman is drained - if so much And: 'What?' Nestor said again, trying to understand. blood is taken that he or she "dies" - then the vampire, That one, Maria, will live, Lord,' Grig told him, pointing your vampire, compensates, gives more of itself. The at the ashen one. 'But the other, Carmen ... she must sleep more you take, the more you give. And after the sleep of for some time.' undeath, the transition is that much faster.' 'Sleep?' Nestor looked at the 'dead' girl again, but with a 'Undeath,' said Grig. 'In your sleep, you drained her. different expression on his face. 'She could be . . . You took from her and you gave to her. She was a Wamphyri?' He glanced at Grig and held up a hand to vampire thrall but mainly human. When she wakes up still his tongue. 'Yes, I know: if she is allowed to she will still be a vampire but mainly inhuman. Essence continue ...' of your leech is in her. Eventually, if she is allowed to He looked at the other woman. 'But this one, Maria . . . continue she will be Wamphyri!' is only a thrall.' Nestor tried hard to grasp the principle. But the 'But a weak thrall, Lord,' Grig nodded. 'For your intricacies of vampirism were such that even with his hunger was very great. The furs are soaked red where own vampire's instinct, still he was confused. He stood your thirst ran over! She needs food, soup, meat. In order up, took the undead girl's hand in his, let it flop loosely, to serve you again, she must first recover.' lifelessly back among the furs. 'On Sunside,' he said, Suddenly Nestor felt bloated. Suddenly he was aware speaking slowly and mainly to himself, 'when the of his red hands, face, even his eyes. He was still a Wamphyri make their thralls, they are only thralls! So novice and had taken too much. While his system was what's so different here?' He looked at Grig accusingly. changing, it had not yet had time to adjust or prepare 'And why do you understand when I do not?' itself for such a gorging. His ascendant leech had been 'I have been here some time, Lord,' Grig answered, 134 135 over where Zahar left off. For there remains a great deal too eager! He reeled beside the bed, clutching the high to be seen, and I want to know all. Meanwhile, move stone headboard for support. And indicating Carmen, he about and make yourself useful by all means, but stay choked out: 'Deal with that. The provisioning.' But as within earshot of this stairwell. When I return, I shall call Grig lifted her up light as a leaf: 'No, wait! Lie her in state for you.' somewhere, until I can think. Then return and care for 'Yes, Lord. But -' this one, this Maria. But for the moment -' Nestor's gorge 'But?' was beginning to heave, '- leave me aJonef Grig looked at the steps leading down, and at the And as Grig carried Carmen from the room, Lord nitre-streaked walls. That is an odorous place, Lord: a Nestor of the Wamphyri groped his way blindly to the kennel, by all accounts. Are you sure you would see it?' curtained niche in the corner, and almost but not quite And again, as if at some command, the unseen made it. . . creature howled far below, and a wave - an almost visible reek - of animal musk came wafting up out of Nestor and Grig went down into Mangemanse. At least, darkness. There was ordure in the smell, strong urine, the Grig would have accompanied his master, if he had been stench of some feral beast's lair. Grig turned to Nestor allowed. But where a deep dark stairwell descended in a again, and said, 'Lord?' steep, narrow spiral into black bowels of rock, and a That howling ... was not a man,' said Nestor. recess in the wall facing the shaft housed a second bat- Grig shook his head. 'No, Lord. Canker Canison makes thing guardian, there Nestor took his lieutenant's arm to creatures in his own image ...' bring him to a halt. And he pointed out a sigil carved in a Nestor shrugged. 'Still, I made a promise, and I must flagstone at the head of the steps. It was Canker's mark: a be known by my word. Also, Canker will make a sickle moon. powerful ally. Well, an ally of sorts.' He started down the Then, as if at some signal, though none had been deeply hollowed steps. 'Wait for me, and when I return, given, a growl echoed up from below and was followed answer my call.' by a single, ululating howl, which slowly died away. The 'Yes, Lord.' guardian showed alarm, flowed forward in its niche and And Nestor proceeded down into Mangemanse . .. hissed, but Nestor cautioned it: Be quiet, all is well. And: 'Lord?' Grig looked at him uncertainly, and The spiral staircase was deep. Nestor went cautiously; waited. his Wamphyri eyes were now so changed that he saw 'Canker and I have an agreement,' Nestor told him. almost as well as in daylight. There was no more 'When in future we visit, we go alone, of our own free howling, but an aura of expectancy. Without even knowing will. It was not my intention that you would accompany he did it, Nestor sent his vampire awareness ahead of me further than this point, but that you'd wait here until I him, probing the root of the shaft. Something was down return. Then you shall show me Suckscar, taking there, but keeping well back, and keeping quiet now. 137 136 somewhere not too far behind sounded a soft and regular And Nestor sent: I am the Lord Nestor. Your master, - yet strangely irregular - padding, and the panting of a Canker Canison, has asked me to attend him. Who harms me loping fox or wolf . .. both of which paused only a split dies! If not by my hand, by Canker's certainly. Snuffles second after Nestor paused. echoed up to him, but that was all. At the foot of the steps . One of two things: he was either being tracked, as prey, .. Nestor was appalled! To the left, a natural cave led back or he'd acquired a wary escort. Looking back, he saw the into darkness absolute, in which feral eyes — huge, yellow, corridor disappearing into the gloom of its own curve, its malevolent — glared for a moment, then blinked out. But walls glowing with a dim phosphorescence of their own; this was not the source of his concern. That was the and in the core of darkness between the walls, at a height veritable midden which lay in a second, smaller cave, to the about central to a man's thigh, those yellow eyes. The right. guardian of Canker's stairwell, but escorting him . . . or The reeking dung of some large beast, possibly the stalking him? And his concentrated vampire senses thing with the yellow eyes, was piled in slumping heaps detected a thought which sped by him in a moment into out of which grew squat, corpse-white mushrooms; while Mangemanse: around and in between the piles swirled sickening green Something is here: a trespasser, a sneaking thing ... and puddles of piss! Nestor stood on a narrow, raised, human/ It - he - pretends to know you and have business unpolluted path midway between the two, the unknown here, but I don't trust him! No, he cannot be the one you guardian on the one hand and its despicable depository on mentioned, your friend. Only command me, and he shall the other. But if this was how Canker kept Mangemanse be no more! It was never a human thought but a beast's: generally ... then it well deserved its name! the ill-formed message of a beast-mind, a dog or great And holding his breath, he proceeded along a corridor wolf, but having far more of intelligence than any warrior towards an area where a row of tiny round windows let in or guardian so far encountered. Something of panic set in a little grey light from the west, and also the wind which then, or if not true panic, an instinctive reaction to danger: hummed a different tune through each orifice, and sucked a deadly cold, emotionless desperation, causing Nestor to away the stench of the stairwell midden. Perhaps this was shut down his own probes and emanations and withdraw where Canker had derived the inspiration for his into himself at once, like a shadow merging into deeper instrument. But now, as Nestor left the windows behind shadows. It was his vampire, of course - its sense of self- and their song dwindled in his ears, so the way ahead preservatiop - which now directed his actions. But if there turned inwards from the outer sheath and into the rock of was any sort of telepathic answer to the tracker's the stack proper, and the corridor grew dark again. murderous suggestion, that too was shut out, leaving Striding out, Nestor found himself listening to the slap, Nestor naked and alone with his own fancies and slap, slap of his own footsteps on the worn stone; but imaginings. Perhaps it were best to try contacting the dog- when he came to a sudden, breathless halt, he knew that Lord, except ... could he trust Canker now? Could he he heard much more than that. For from really trust him? 138 139 And he was still staring at them, pondering their A few more swift, silent paces brought him to a meaning, when they began to shiver and tremble, all in junction like the hub of a great wheel, with spoke unison, like the dewy webs of much smaller, commoner passageways or rooms leading off. Choosing the first forest and plains species when their makers shake them to room on the right and slipping quietly in through its trap mites. Following which, the truth of it became arched entrance, Nestor put his back to the wall and obvious. waited. It had been his parasite's instinct to cast the Ever since childhood, Nestor had known something of merest pulse of a probe ahead of him into the room - the Wamphyri; Szgany legends had been full of them, sufficient to discern no human or inimical animal despite that in those days the Old Wamphyri were no inhabitant, at least, but no more than that - and then he more. When Nestor had played with other Traveller was inside. children, he had always taken the part of a vampire Lord Whatever followed him must pass close by. Depending — indeed, as a child he had truly desired to be Wamphyri on the nature of the beast, and if it failed to detect him, - so that it was not so very strange that these were the Nestor had two choices: to let it carry on, and then escape only genuinely material things which he remembered back along the way he'd come, or to leap upon the from those forgotten days of yore. creature and try to kill it. To that end, his knife was in his hand. And standing there with his back to the cold stone He had been familiar with all the Wamphyri myths, and wall, scarcely daring to breathe, Nestor looked all about had known about their powers. Their mentalism, and their his bolthole to discover its contents, function, and any ability to conjure mists out of their bodies; their familiars, other exits or escape routes which might exist. Of the the bats of Starside, great and small, which they latter, there were none: the place was quite simply a dry commanded. But there was another part of the legend cave with a high ceiling, crumbling ledges, gloomy which was less well-known: the way they used lesser niches, and no obvious evidence that it had ever been creatures (such as the bat, and the great red bat-eating inhabited or furnished . . . by men. But it did have its own spiders of Starside caverns) to spy for them and perform function, and it did provide habitation of sorts. For ... other functions. One such myth had been that the spiders! Wamphyri used spider silk to spin their clothing, while Their black webs, half as thick as a man's little finger, another hinted that they kept the corpses of victims didn't become visible until Nestor craned his neck to wrapped in spider-shrouds, which preserved their meat for stare up through a great many irregularly concentric tiers eating. of crumbling sandstone ledges - like the interior of some Such memories sprang to mind now, perhaps enhanced crooked, burned-out chimney - receding to the ceiling and given substance by his new vampire instinct. So that high overhead. Then the webs looked like intricately even without knowing the mechanics of the thing, Nestor patterned cracks in the darkness, no two patterns alike, all knew that something of these ancient beliefs was true. He of them faintly luminescent; layer upon layer of them, also knew why the as-yet-unseen spiders in the ledges of bridging the gaps between the ledges as they receded the cave were shaking their with them into the heights of the place. 140 141 webs: to trap whatever intruder had entered into their inches off the ground, and must have weighed in excess of place, namely himself. It was an automatic thing and four hundred pounds. The pads of its paws were larger natural; in any case he was no cavern bat to go flitting to than Nestor's hands, with claws that clicked against stone his death in the shimmering heights! where the flags of the floor were uneven. He scarcely felt threatened - not by spiders, however And its head and face were ... quite monstrous. Again, large - but nevertheless turned more fully towards the they reminded Nestor of a wolf - their dimensions were doorway ... and in that same moment became aware of those of a huge wolf, certainly - but the furtive, the furtive slap of padded feet, and a low panting which unblinking intelligence behind the burning sulphur of the issued from the mouth of the long corridor back to the eyes, and the colour of its fur, that was all fox. In stairwell. Whatever it was that stalked him, it was here combination, the feral talents of the two animals would be even now. And Nestor gripped his knife that much formidable. tighter, and stayed hidden in the shadows of the doorway They were formidable! until the thing began to emerge into the hub of the cavern The guardian took another weird, loping pace forward; system. Then, seeing it come slowly, cautiously into its long snout again touched the floor where Nestor had view ... paused, and sniffed; and the long, sensitive ears swivelled . . . He took a last deep breath and held it, and to point at him in his hiding place. He would draw further continued to hide in the shadows. And the knife in his back but didn't dare move. This creature wasn't something hand felt like a brittle twig, and his flesh soft as the pulp he could shout at and subdue. It wasn't one of his own but of fungi, as the Thing more fully emerged, lowered its Canker Canison's, over which he had no claim or control face to the floor where he had stepped - and sniffed with at all. It had allowed him to enter this place 'of his own a drooling snout more than a foot long! free will'. But that didn't mean it had to let him out again. Nestor had seen his share of Grey Ones, the wolves of Nestor had instinctively, automatically shuttered his the barrier mountains, but never a one like this. eyes. Still the yellow orbs of the wolf-thing found the red Something of the wolf was in it, certainly, but very little of flush of his own, and grew large in its sloping face as its Nature. No, for this was a creature spawned of Canker's entire body aimed itself like an arrow at his doorway. vats. And it had been bred in something of Canker's Then, growling low in its throat, stiff-legged, and 'image', at that. Lupine, yes, but fox-red, too, its lope was salivating from jaws like an ivory mantrap, the thing nightmarish; made nightmarish by the fact of its six legs! advanced. The first four of these moved like the legs of any ordinary And it was no more than five of Nestor's paces away tame dog or wolf, in diagonal agreement, but the pair that when he felt a tap on his shoulder! brought up the rear moved in tandem with the centre Any ordinary man might have fainted at that touch; pair, like the small deer of Sunside's forests when even the bravest Szgany Traveller would have cried out; startled to flight; yet all with a sinuous grace. The thing but Nestor was no longer Szgany, no longer a Traveller. was something less than eight feet long from snout to tip He was Wamphyri! He moved but a fraction, turning of tail, stood maybe thirty-six 142 143 his body only an inch or two at most, but his knife-hand once rolled itself into a ball; without pause, Nestor moved like greased lightning. And he slashed unerringly kicked it straight into the face of the wolf-thing. And as at whatever had touched him. Canker's creature reared back and yelped, he stepped The keen edge of his blade bit into but didn't quite cut into the open with his knife-arm upraised. the rope-like thing touching his upper left shoulder. 'What's all this?' Canker whiningly queried, loping Instead, the weapon seemed attracted to that slender, forward across the open span of the hub. 'Is it the Lord hairy strand, and in order to retrieve it he must wrench Nestor? What, and do you threaten my creatures?' He sharply downwards; which only served to bring him into grinned. further contact with the thread of gluey spider silk. 'Do I. . . what?' Nestor was astonished, and angry. Slapping against the sleeve of his jacket from shoulder to 'Hah!' Canker barked. 'Or do they threaten you, eh?' elbow, it adhered at once - and began to vibrate! The great spider scurried by them into the darkness of Nestor glanced out of the door; the wolf-thing had the cave, and Canker's 'guard-dog' shrank down and come to a halt and was crouched down snarling only two grovelled, then backed off with its tail between its legs. paces - or a single bound - away! Its sleek muscles were Canker scowled at it and said, 'Well done!' Then pointed bunching even now. While descending from above, a foot and added, 'And now begone!' The creature turned and or two overhead ... slunk away, returning the way it had come. . . . A great red spider crept effortlessly, head-first down 'Your dog would have attacked me!' Nestor accused. the strand; and in the walls, the ruby-glinting eyes of 'And your spiders did attack me!' others were visible where they swung from ledge to 'On the first count, wrong,' said Canker. 'My "dog", as ledge, coming to investigate the nature of their victim. you have it, was instructed to follow you and see you But there are spiders and there are spiders. Relatives of came to no harm. He was only suspicious because you these creatures dwelled on Sunside, too, in deep caverns were so furtive, whereas I had said you would be bold! from which they emerged at dusk to fashion their webs And on the second count, also wrong, because the great and trap moths. That species was three to four inches red spiders are only "mine" insofar as they dwell here. I long, with a bite that was poisonous but rarely fatal. It don't - can't - command them; they are what they are and produced a numbness and even partial paralysis, do what they do. But ... you have spiders of your own, accompanied by dizziness and vomiting, but lasting only surely? Or should I say, there are spiders, in Suckscar. three or four hours at most. That was Sunside, however, Ah, but I note your confusion! As yet you've not while this was Starside; these aerie spiders were at least explored your manse to the full, and so you fail to four times longer, with forty or fifty times the bulk! understand the special functions of creatures such as this. Nestor gave his arm a desperate yank and his sleeve Well, that's easily put to rights; let me show you.' was torn away down the stitches, to dangle there on the He led the way back into the spider cavern, but Nestor adhesive thread. The violence of the movement shook the stayed where he was. 'What?' Canker glanced back at spider loose; it flopped to the floor and at him. 'Do you hold back? No need for caution L 144 145 mountains, apparently mummified and more than a little now, Nestor. Indeed quite the opposite! The more noise shrivelled. But dead? Nestor fancied he saw the faint the better!' And with that he barked and capered, and flutter of an eyelid and the merest twitch of a laughed in his mad-dog fashion within the cave. The protuberant lip. Also, the wall of the waxy tube directly echoes of his actions went up, and dust rilled down, and above his face was misty, as from shallow breathing. high overhead the luminous webs stopped shivering and 'Bravo!' said Canker. 'Your developing vampire grew still. instinct: you chose to examine the one cell currently in 'Blind!' Canker laughed. 'Or very nearly. Ah, but they use.' hear well enough! Why, you must have crept in here, 'Cell?' Nestor looked at him, and Canker shrugged. Nestor, that they should mistake you for something small. 'Hatchery, then.' But quite obviously we noisy creatures are not bats, and Nestor frowned, shook his head, and Canker sighed. so the spiders are fled to their high niches. But come, see, Then, leading the way back out: 'Now listen,' he said, and understand.' 'and I shall explain. The spiders fashion these combs in He loped through the cavern, across a floor inches deep size according to their prey. Here in Mangemanse - and in defunct, cast-off webs which had lost both their glow throughout the aerie in general - we, the Wamphyri, and adhesion, to a corner which was festooned in dusty provide the prey, wherefore the tubes are man-sized. drapes of spider silk. And behind these shrouding 'The process is simple: We hunt on Sunside, or in this curtains ... case on Starside, down in the bottoms beyond the '... There!' said Canker, pointing. sucking sphere of white light.' And now Nestor saw that the old Szgany legends were The hell-lands Gate?' (Again Nestor's resurgent true. For there against the wall stood a geometrical memory.) structure, like a small section cut through a beehive 'Indeed, in the trog caverns where the earth shines. honeycomb. Six hexagonal tubes formed the base, with Hell-lands Gate, did you say? Aye, I've heard my thralls five more on top, then four, three, two and one. A call it by that name, when I've brought them out of pyramid of tubes. Storage tubes of wax, produced and Sunside. Let me begin again: fashioned by the spiders, in which to preserve ... what? 'We hunt on Sunside, and take thralls, lieutenants, The tubes were almost seven feet long by two feet women! But not everyone can be a thrall or lieutenant, across the bore. Nestor approached the pyramid and and sometimes a woman can get used up too quickly. brushed dust away from wax which was not quite opaque. Of course, there is always the provisioning: a manse has The tube he had chosen was in the row of three, about its needs no less than its inhabitants. I have warriors to shoulder high, the fourth in height from the floor. And feed, and familiars. And then there are my common lodged within, all wrapped in silk threads except for his vampire thralls and my men. But what use to keep a face - was that a human figure? surfeit of flesh around, especially if it be useless, surly, or Well, sub-human anyway. For it was a brown and ugly? leathery trog from Starside's caverns under the barrier 'Well, I have cold storage rooms, as do we all. But ... 146 147 I prefer my meat red and afoot when I can have it. Right simple enough,' he finally answered. 'Except . . . do you now, I don't have much use for the spiders, none of us do. keep trogs in your larder, too?' But in time of siege, if that should ever come to pass - 'Eh?' Canker frowned. 'Ah! - that one back there? No, and well it might, for we have powerful enemies in the no - he is not for eating. Not by me, at least! But you see, east - or if ever fresh blood should prove hard to come by the spiders look after me, and I must look after the . . . then the aerie's spiders come into their own. spiders. That trog you saw, he is a receptacle, a hatchery. 'For they have a bite which will put a man to sleep as What, and should I let the beasts die out? No, of course easily as my own - ha, ha! Except men will rise from my not, for they serve me too well. The trog's dull life is bite, if I wish it, while the spider bite will freeze them for burgeoning even now, and so is a new generation of long and long. It is not undeath, no, but similar in its way. grubs, burrowing in his innards. It does not make vampires but simply preserves ... meat. 'But enough of that. Let's down into Mangemanse And so you see the value of the spiders. Bitten by them proper, and see what's to be seen.' They had reached the and wrapped in their cocoons, a man is slowed down, north-eastern corner of the stack, where windows looked down, down and lasts a year or more. So that if the time out on mile upon mile of barren boulder plains and a comes when I may not journey abroad, well, so what? My distant, dark-blue horizon, cold and sombre under the larder is full at home. Oh, ha, ha! I have thirty men occasional writhing wisp of auroral sheen. Here a wide preserved in this way; aye, and even a handful of women staircase led down, and as Nestor followed on close ... behind the dog-Lord, his first view of Canker's great hall The antidote is produced by the female when her eggs surprised him more than just a little. Here at least, are due to hatch. It lets blood flow freely in the incubator: Mangemanse was not what he'd supposed it would be ... that is, the body of the victim, in which she has laid her eggs. In men, these are deposited in the gut; and even as If Nestor had been puzzled by Canker's remark about the antidote stirs the victim to agonized life, so the descending into Mangemanse 'proper', he was puzzled no hatchlings are busy eating their way out! more. Up above, in the level immediately below his own 'Ah, but of course that is not allowed to happen! As Suckscar, the aura had been one of emptiness, desolation, soon as a man is stilled and cocooned - before eggs can abandonment. Ah, but all deliberately contrived! Nestor be laid in him — I have him removed from this place to saw that now: that the upper level had been kept that way my larder. Later, when I require him up and about, it's the - gloomy, echoing, guarded, and forbidding - because of work of a moment to have a female administer the its proximity to the one-time manse of Vasagi the Suck. antidote. What could be simpler?' There was nothing up there which a neighbour would Walking with Canker through the hollow, echoing covet, just empty rooms, mazy corridors, a cave of maze of Mangemanse's upper level, Nestor offered a spiders (of which Vasagi, and now Nestor, had sufficient shrug. Deep inside, perhaps something of the old Nestor of his own) and a ferocious guardian equipped not only rebelled; if so, his parasite quickly subdued it. 'It seems with a physical 'voice', but 148 149 also with a cunning intelligence and a strong telepathic They left Canker's great hall and struck out north connection with its master. That level was a gantlet, a through a maze of well-kept corridors and lesser halls. place to be approached with great caution and suspicion, And in a while, as they proceeded: if not actual fear and trepidation; though who in his right 'It was a mistake to come here,' said Nestor, musingly. mind would want to run such a gantlet in the first place, 'How so?' Canker coughed. Nestor couldn't say. Perhaps those 'powerful enemies in 'Because it makes me realize how much of my own the east' which Canker had mentioned. But down here: place goes unseen, as yet unexplored! But since we seem As opposed to a midden, stink-hole or kennel, Mange- to have struck up something of a friendship, it would have manse 'proper' was immaculate, which in the richness and been impolite of me to refuse you.' variety of its appointments by far outdid the austerity and 'Impolite?' Canker grinned, but ruefully. 'Precious little dingy furnishings of Suckscar! The walls were hung with of politics here, Nestor! What rules the Wamphyri make tapestries, hunting scenes mainly, at which well-clothed are for breaking; their "chivalry" is a sham; if a Lord can vampire women worked even now, stitching and lie and go undetected, be sure he'll never tell the truth. If embellishing. A kitchen in an alcove to one side issued you find one you think you can trust, odds are he's made a mouth-watering aromas and billowing wafts of smoke fool of you. When a Lord laughs with you, make sure he and steam into a chimney hole in the ceiling. More doesn't continue when your back is turned. And any windows, cut high in the walls, let in all that was required bargain you may strike, strike it twice and make doubly of light; since these faced well away from the sun and sure you nail it down!' towards the north-east, their ornate baffles, screens and Nestor looked at him earnestly. 'Oh, and is your bat-fur curtains were kept mainly open, aerating the place. chivalry - the friendship which you've shown me - a sham, Canker pointed out a great high archway in an inner Canker? Do you also lie? In trusting you, am I a fool? Do wall; surmounted by a recently cemented keystone bearing you laugh with me, or behind my back?' his sickle-moon sigil, this was the entrance to his private 'I'm as big a liar as the rest,' the dog-Lord answered, apartments. He made no attempt to show Nestor inside, carelessly. 'As for chivalry: let a man cross me, I'll but explained: 'I keep a watcher just within who has no ambush and gut him at my first opportunity! Comradeship eyes and so works by smell alone. This makes him extra and laughter? There are laughs and there are laughs. But vigilant, and he accepts only me and mine. Instant death you ...' He paused in his loping, caught Nestor's arms and to anyone else - friend, foe, whatever - who so much as looked him straight in the eye, very seriously, with his puts a toe across that threshold. Be advised: that is one great shaggy head cocked a little on one side. 'You ... are place where you must never go, neither of your own free different. To answer your question: no, I'll not betray you. will nor by invitation, not even mine! No, for you are a Lord But you're not yet full-fledged; and when your leech rides of the Wamphyri in your own right; be sure he would sniff ascendant, well, it could yet be a question of who betrays out your leech and fall on you in a moment!' who.' By now they had crossed the span of Mangemanse to 150 151 reach a cold and blustery cavern in the north-facing There,' said Canker, gratified. 'I see it in your face: you wall. Out there, seen through a series of small round acknowledge my skill in the construction of this work! window holes, the distant horizon was of a variegated Ah, and one day you'll applaud my artistry, too, as I blue and purple, shimmering through amethyst to indigo orchestrate the very winds and cause these bones to and back again, under the weave of the Icelands aurora. sound! But . . . would you like a demonstration? Stand But here inside the cavern - once a long, low-ceilinged back then, and you shall see. Oh, it's not perfected, not yet landing bay by its looks - this was where Canker had by a long shot. But one day, one day.' been at work on his 'musical instrument'. Nestor gazed And as Nestor looked on, Canker loosened the baffle- in open astonishment at the gleaming white jumble ropes where they were coiled on capstans . .. where Canker stepped proudly, carefully among the various half-finished assemblies, and marvelled at the dog-Lord's industry, that he had conceived of and commenced to build such a thing. It was of alveolate bones, of course, many of them thin as a man's arm, while others were vast beyond reason: the leg and thigh-bones of warrior creatures of the Old Wamphyri who, in ages past, had warred with each other and ridden their vampire beasts to battle and death out across the boulder plains more than two thousand feet below. For in those days there had been many aeries, whose Lords and Ladies were forever feuding. And so the littered gullies and dried-out river beds of Starside's bottoms formed a monstrous ossuary. Now: Canker had started to carve these hollowed relics of bygone ages, to pierce them and fit the holes with oiled, sliding plugs, and to join the resulting - flutes? - together in series from large bones to small. He had strapped them side by side with leather fastenings, their open ends facing the blustery gulf beyond the landing-bay. While in the mouth of the bay itself, there a series of massive baffles — the oarlike scapulae of monsters — were held in position by ropes and turned on pivots at Canker's command. And indeed there seemed something of order in his work, which was why Nestor marvelled. 152 Down in Guilesump, the water in Gorvi's wells seemed to tremble on the surface as from some internal stirring. VI The Bonesong - Dust, falling in rills, formed curtains like drifting smoke or the weird weave of Iceland's auroras without their Wratha - Carmen phosphorescent sheen. The Guile's watchmen turned wondering eyes upwards to cavern ceilings, only to blink and feel the sting as the fine grey dust settled into them. In Madmanse, the brothers Wran and Spiro Killglance slept and dreamed their red dreams, but all disturbed and In all the levels of the last great aerie of the Wamphyri - in distorted by the sound. Half-waking, Wran aimed a echoing halls which now were mainly empty except for sluggish thought at unseen but suspect guardian creatures drowsy vampire guards and watchkeeping monsters, in which he supposed were quarrelling: Be still! Stop winding, mazy corridors and stairwells, storerooms, fighting.' Keep watch! Or should I simply dissolve you in communal and private places - the sound gradually the vats and start again? Having issued the threat, he became apparent. It might be the sighing of the wind flowing returned to his hideous dreaming. But still the sound was down from the Icelands, drawn by the sun rising over there. Sunside, where even now mists had been lured up from And Spiro cried out - once, twice, sharply and fearfully foothills and crags to obscure the yellow peaks of the barrier from his bed - and whined: 'Eygor, our father which we range. It might be a mewling of monsters waxing in their murdered! But . . . are you here, too? Does your uneasy vats, things which had been men and now were less (or spirit prowl the last aerie, the new Mad-manse, just as it more?) than men, giving hideous voice and readying stalked the corridors of that haunted old place in themselves for their new roles. It might be the scorching of Turgosheim? So be it! I am not afraid. For there's no the sun on the south-facing flanks of Wrathspire itself, as if power in your eyes now. You may not destroy me with a its rays ate like acid into the harrowed rock of morbid glance!' All very defiant and brave-sounding. Bravo! But centuries. It might have been any or all of these things, a Spiro's voice had faded to a dry, mumbling croak at the combination of sounds amplified by the comparative quiet end. And there was no answer except the bonesong. and the aching acoustic hollowness of the kilometre-high In Suckscar, Zahar and Grig shared the duties of stack, but it was none of them. It was, instead, a sounding Lieutenant of the Guard the better to keep an eye on the of bones. It was Canker Canison at his first fumbling trial common thrall pickets and watchmen; for Nestor's orders run, adjusting the baffles which directed the gusting dawn (his dire threats and warnings) had not gone astray. winds through the maze of grotesque bone pipes which Currently, Grig was half-asleep on a bench not far from was his moon lure. And it sounded, however faintly at where Nestor had left him on his descent into first, in every inch of the stack from Gorvi's basement Mangemanse, and Zahar nursed his crippled but rapidly apartments to the tip of the topmost turret of Wrathspire itself. 154 155 healing arm and hand as he crept up on watchmen to howled out of the past, and was borne to her on beams of catch them out. sunlight from far across the barrier mountains. To them the wail and throb and thunder of Canker's The sun is risen and smiles her sick, yellow smile at music seemed a song of grave foreboding; issuing from me,' she whispered, her voice all trembly, drowsy and Mangemanse, it might easily spell trouble and even death dreaming, as her thrall's clever hands soothed her a little. for their new master, who seemed bent on suicide in those 'Aye, smiling ... even as she smiled at Karl the Crag that unknown levels of kennel-stench and canine perversion. time, and turned his hair to smoke, and burned his eyes Aye, for even among the Wamphyri, Canker was out! I can hear him crying out to me, demanding revenge! perverse. Not that Zahar and Grig would worry much His voice is in the sun, which burns on Wrathspire even over Nestor's demise, but more about their own futures if now.' And perspiring, yet with something of a shiver in such were the case. her voice, she queried: 'Are the drapes drawn? Are they?' And overhead, in Wrathspire, Wratha tossed in her bed 'Yes, Lady. Throughout all of Wrathspire. Except ... and called out wearily for her love-thrall to attend her. He this room has no drapes, for there are no windows. You came, shuddering, from his fur-draped bench in a niche, rarely sleep where the sun can find you, Lady.' massaged her back with trembling hands, and told her, True,' she sighed in answer, drifting deeper into 'Hush, now! Rest easy, Lady. No harm befalls.' Her fevered dreams. 'But I nightmare wherever I sleep ...' vampire lover was young and strong, but not as strong as he had been and no longer so young. He ate like a shad In Mangemanse, Nestor leaned back against a curved but his weight went down ounce by ounce; his cheeks inner buttress with his hands clapped to his ringing ears. were sinking in upon themselves; his nerves were There stood Canker like a huge upright dog, outlined breaking. And the smile he must smile for Wratha was against the deep blue sheen of the northern horizon. With often as not a grimace ... but not when she could see it, four baffle-ropes wrapped around each arm, he tried only when he practised. For in his heart of hearts he knew desperately hard, and uselessly, to control all of the wind it would not be long before the Lady sought a inlets at once. The result for the last six or seven minutes replacement; knew also what had befallen the one who had been an absolute cacophony, until Nestor could stand had gone before him. Wrathspire had its requirements and it no longer. Now, pale and shaken, he watched the little went to waste. There was always the provisioning ... laughing dog-Lord releasing rope after rope, until the To Wratha's love-thrall the bonesong was the merest numerous cartilage baffles were set loose to pivot and hum vibrating upwards through the rock under his feet turn at will, knocked to and fro by the mindless wind. and into him: a loose window baffle perhaps, thrumming Then for a while it was even worse. Several of the in a crosswind. But to Wratha it was something else. Her bellows between the baffles and the organ assemblies acute Wamphyri senses, which numbered more than five, ruptured as great blasts of uncontrolled air tore into them; loaned it new accent and meaning, especially in her an eight foot tall baffle was wrenched loose from vampire sleep. It was an accusing voice which 156 157 and his jaws gaped wide, snarling ... but in the next his its seating in a splintering of cartilage and went clattering expression was sad. 'Mythical, Nestor?' he half-panted, away along the outer wall of the stack and down into the half-whined. 'Huh! I might have expected that from the abyss; one of the assemblies, virtually a pyramid of others, but not from you. I tell you I have dreamed of her, bones, began vibrating so violently that its bindings and she must be from the moon! Where else, all dressed snapped, setting free a dozen or more mighty white tubes in silver, with her yellow hair and blue eyes? Have you to go rolling and bouncing this way and that across the not seen how the moon tumbles blue and yellow through floor of the one-time landing bay. Canker, hastily winding the skies: blue in those parts which are turned to the ropes on capstans, had to dance to avoid being knocked off Icelands, and yellow in the half that is lit by the furnace his feet. sun? And sometimes silver head to toe when the sun is At last the chaos was over and there came a blissful down and the aurora flutters pale in the north? Do you surcease. And despite the moaning of the wind round the not know that I am an oneiro-mancer and can read the last aerie, the 'silence' was such that it was deafening. future in dreams? Until you can readily understand such Furious about the damage, Canker stamped and roared, things, don't speak to me of myths and fancies.' and finally turned to where Nestor staggered wan and 'I didn't mean to offend you,' Nestor told him. 'And in very nearly deafened against the buttress. any case, who am I to say you're wrong? I can't even 'Did you hear? Did you see?' The dog-thing barked. On remember my own past - well, except in brief, meaningless the one hand his fury was still plain to see, but on the flashes - let alone read the future!' other he seemed partially satisfied at least. 'And what did Canker came to him and clapped his shoulder. 'I am you think?' not offended. We are friends, you and I, and must always _ Think?' Nestor answered. 'Have you left me a brain with speak the truth to one another. That's how it shall be. But which to think?' tell me, how may I learn the music? I mean, I understand 'Was it that bad?' Canker was at once crestfallen. 'Bad is the principle, but have no idea of the tune. It is for not the word for what it was!' 'Aye, you are right.' The dancing, am I right? And for singing? Well I can sing, you may believe it! And I dance in a fashion, though not other nodded. Too much for one man to handle, I think. like you Szgany sing and dance.' But it was the first time I'd tried it, after all. Perhaps when The tune?' Nestor was puzzled. 'But I'm sure there's I've repaired it, next time you'd care to give me a hand?' more than one tune. I think I know a few notes of Nestor shook his aching head, but carefully. 'I think several. Bring me a flute out of Sunside and I'll teach not. Compose your orchestra of lieutenants and thralls, you.' Canker. For even the strongest friendship has its breaking 'A song of love, of devotion, of worship!' Canker yelped point.' his excitement. That is what I require. I shall imitate your 'But you'll admit the thing has possibilities?' 'Will it make most beautiful tune, and fit my song to it. Then, eventually, music? Will it lure your mythical Lady down from the I'll lure my silver mistress down from the moon!' moon? Is that what you're asking?' For a moment Canker's face turned yet more bestial 158 159 'Here in Mangemanse, however, as you have seen and Moon madness! Nestor thought, but kept the thought as I trust you will keep to yourself, things are very well hidden ... different. My place is clean, neither a kennel nor a midden except in its approaches, which is a deliberate On their way back to the midden stairwell to Suckscar, contrivance. What is more, I would hazard a guess that Nestor was quiet a while before saying: 'Something is in its appointments — its staff, equipment, furnishings amiss here.' and facilities - Mangemanse is superior to almost any 'Eh?' Canker looked at him where they paused in the other house in all this great stack! Well, with the passageway to the foot of the stairs, where lurked the six- exception, perhaps, of Wrathspire. For indeed Wratha legged wolf creature. 'Something amiss? In what the Risen likes her little luxuries. But only let some vile way?' intruder enter by this route - or by any route, up, down 'It was my impression . .. that is, I was given to or sideways - and he's bound to think as you thought understand -' Nestor paused for a moment, and finished in when first you ventured here into stench and ordure, and a rush: '- that you lived like a beast!' And backing away a so proceed no farther. Thus are my credentials, and my little from the other: 'If we are to be true friends, then manse's security, established.' surely I can say these things?' 'And shall remain so,' Nestor nodded. 'Also, I know Canker threw back his head and laughed, and was serious your state of mind . . . I think.' in a moment. 'That is an image which I have deliberately 'My state of mind?' Canker raised a shaggy red fostered. And after all, I am a beast! But so are they all. eyebrow. And you too, Nestor, or you will be. But yes, I understand 'Your attitude in this respect,' Nestor answered. 'I your meaning. My reason for this lifelong subterfuge is seem to remember that sometimes on Sunside, if a simple: survival! If my so-called colleagues think there is guard-dog or -wolf is tethered or kennelled for too long nothing to covet in Mange-manse, then they will covet in one place, then he may become "kennel-proud"; which is nothing. If they believe I dwell in a pigsty, they will surely to say he'll suffer no other creature within the boundary stay out of it. Just as long as they consider me a strange, of his territory. Whenever this occurs, only the dog's mad creature, I have little to fear from them; for quite master may command him within that perimeter or bring obviously I am harmless - that is, as long as I'm left to my him safely out of it. Add to this the fact that the own devices and not threatened. When abroad, hunting on Wamphyri are notoriously territorial...' Sunside, I ravage and rage and pose a dire threat, to 'Your reasoning is sound,' Canker nodded. 'You are females especially. There seems no purpose to the things I saying that perhaps I am suffering from this kennel- do. Ah, but there is a purpose! Certainly I achieve some proudness, and it could be that you are right. Except gratification, some small satisfaction, from certain acts there's a flaw in it, for it doesn't explain why I invited which others might consider gross. But more than that I you to come down here. Unless for "master" we perpetuate my image, the light in which those others see substitute the word "friend". But understand this: one me.' He paused. thing I am proud of is my ancestry, however mongrel. The dog, 160 161 ensure they're of your own blood? And so another legend even the fox - and especially the wolf - they are all of brought to its knees. I am a beast, aye ... when it suits me them noble beasts. Don't you agree?' to be one!' 'Certainly,' said Nestor, though he was not convinced. Nestor nodded slowly and said, 'Any who think you are But best to keep the dog-Lord happy. mad, Canker Canison, quite obviously they are mad.' 'For the wolf is a hunter who lives in the wild and But as he made his way up into Suckscar alone, he relies solely upon his own skill,' Canker went on. 'The thought to himself: As for your silver mistress in the fox is colourful, crafty beyond measure, a sneak thief moon .. . well, there's madness and there's madness ... and merciless killer. And as for the dog when he is trained? What more faithful creature exists in all the At the start of the next sunup, Nestor's vampire came into world?' its true ascendancy. In the interim, for a period equivalent Nestor was surprised. 'Do the Wamphyri keep dogs?' 'It's to five days in the world beyond the glaring hell-lands not unknown. In Turgosheim, several Lords keep dogs, Gate, he had expended furious and frightening Wamphyri aye. They keep them as pets, and occasionally for the energies exploring, charting and reorganizing Suckscar. hunting. Ah, but it's common knowledge that the Szgany And in that same period he had grown, changed, taken on of Sunside keep a great many dogs, for the security which a shape which was like yet unlike his own, the shape of a they give! Not only to guard their encampments against true Lord of the Wamphyri. His excessive activity was hostile strangers, but also for early warning of Wamphyri like a fever in his blood, which would not let him rest; it raiders. As for myself ... why, Mangemanse is full of dogs! was the Change That Shapes; it was his rapid They are my children!' 'Your chil -?' metamorphosis into something other than the Nestor he 'Oh, ha-ha!' Canker capered. 'I have wives, Nestor, a had been. And as the furnace sun rose up again beyond good many. And they've borne me a good many pups. the barrier range to banish the shadows from the Ah, you've likely heard it said that girls stolen out of mountains, then it was that his vampire leech became fully Sunside don't last too long in Mangemanse, eh? Not so? ascendant. Well, that's the way they tell it, anyway. But it's untrue. The speed with which the change had occurred was Just because I kill on Sunside - and remember, Canker astonishing, the activity of his parasite amazing. He has killed with his member, lad! - that's not to say I do it would launch out from his manse upon his flyer, and in Mangemanse. What, I should worry my girl thralls to when the others saw him circling Wrathstack, or soaring death like a wild dog among goats? Not at all. They are over Wrathspire itself, laughing into the wind, then they my wives who pleasure me. But none outside Mangemanse would wonder at it. But the fact of it was that Vasagi the knows it. Except you, for you have seen. They work in Suck had been a master of metamorphism, and the answer my kitchens, at my tapestries, in my laundry and butcher lay in the genetic make-up of his egg. In that and in shop, even in the pens and launching bays. As for my Nestor's urgency to be Wamphyri! yelping bloodsons: what better way to build an army, and Then, too, the other side of his morbid ancestry came staff it with faithful lieutenants, than to 162 163 into play. But morbid only in the sense of its infinitely But necromancer? Ah, indeed ... dark possibilities, not in the nature of the one who had It started like this: explored, possessed and used them; a man called Harry Keogh, Necroscope. In his own world a parallel universe Nestor was out flying. It seemed the only way to ease away (and later in this one, too) Nestor's father had been his spirit, still the weird tides surging in his blood and beloved of the teeming dead, the Great Majority. How calm his burgeoning Wamphyri passions. Out there in could it have been otherwise? For Harry had been a lone the crisp, cold air, under fading ice-chip stars, feeling the candle glimmering in their eternal darkness, a warm spot rush of the slipstream over his flyer's head and neck, he could forget ... things. And that in itself was strange, for in the chill of their unbeing, the only man of all living men who could talk to them and give them comfort. And in truth he had very little to forget. Except perhaps the more, he had been the only one who could die for them. In rushing whirlpool of numbers spiralling in his head, that the end he had done just that: died for the dead and the madly whirling vortex which on occasion he dreamed of living alike, for all the generations that were and those yet even now. The vortex and its treacherous origin: the mind to come in two worlds. Except ... his end had signalled a of his olden enemy on Sunside. For upon a time Nestor had loved; the ache was still monstrous beginning, and Nestor was just another link in the endless chain. there in his heart, and the hatred. He had loved, and had Thus Harry's darkest talent, or an even darker one, had been rejected. Or rather, his olden enemy had stolen her been inherited by this Gypsy son of his, just as it had away. That was as much as he remembered of it; that and been passed on to Nestor's brother, Nathan. But in Nestor the fact that afterwards .. . well, he had not been the the dark side was ascendant, and the dead would never same. Nor would he ever be the same again. For his change then had been physical, wrought of a damaged love him. Indeed those who had passed beyond, and should be beyond all fear and feeling, would very soon mind and body, while his change now was psychical, of fear him above all other living, dead, and undead the spirit. Indeed there was very little of the human spirit creatures. Fear him, yes, together with all of his works. left in him. But an inhuman spirit? Because some of them would even feel the works of the And so Nestor rode out upon his flyer and bared his vampire Lord Nestor! teeth and laughed into the wind, even though he felt that the laughter wasn't entirely his. But the gold was back on Nothing of which was known to Nestor himself, for the Necroscope Harry Keogh had died when he was still a the peaks of the barrier mountains and he dared not fly child, and Nestor had long since forgotten Nathan as a too high. Soon the tallest towers of Wrathspire would be brother and now thought of him only as some hated rival bathed in yellow glare, and all of Wratha's curtains or grim enemy out of the past. But Harry Keogh's talent closed against the light of day. That was still several was in him for all that, or a hideously warped version of it hours away, however, and for the moment Nestor displayed his newly acquired mastery of flight, urging at least. Lord Nestor of the Wamphyri - Necroscope? No, never. his beast into intricate aerial configurations in and out of Wrathspire's hollow turrets and fretted rock needles. 164 165 gauntlet behind, hanging from his flyer's saddle. Well, Then . . . he saw the Lady Wratha herself. She was in a and what odds? Even with his gauntlet he'd stand no turret, watching him at his play and keeping her thoughts slightest chance against even a small warrior. These hidden. Nestor had sensed her there before, on several were some of the thoughts that passed rapidly through occasions, but had never seen her. Seeing her now, his head as he stood glaring at the Lady and the shadowy distracted by her presence, he momentarily lost control of shape in the turret behind her. But in the next moment: his flyer and came close to striking a bartizan. But his Ridiculous! he thought. What am I thinking o/? I land mount, concerned for its own skin as well as its master's, on another's territory unbidden and of my own free will, instinctively avoided the collision. approach her in anger, and at once consider murderous Hearing Wratha's laughter, Nestor wheeled his flyer in combat - with a warrior? Madness! Quite obviously this a tight circle, alighted on a quarter-acre of roof like a white heat inside my body and head is burning up my small, sloping plateau, dismounted and went striding brain! towards her turret observation post. 'Funny, was it?' he His thoughts were confused, a jumble, entirely queried angrily. 'To distract me, so that I might easily unguarded. And: 'Aha!' said Wratha. 'And so he rises!' have crashed, wrecked my flyer and gone tumbling over Nestor was taken aback. He glanced this way and that the edge to a certain death?' and saw nothing. 'Who rises?' From somewhere behind and below her there sounded She smiled at him wickedly, teasingly perhaps. 'Why, a warning, echoing rumble and the clatter of scrabbling your leech, my young Lord! Your parasite. He - or it - claws. The turret must conceal a stairwell down into rises to ascendancy.' Wrathspire. It was one of the Lady's exits onto the roof. It explained a lot and was the only clue Nestor needed. And Wratha had brought up an escort with her, one of her 'I. . . I had wondered,' he said, lamely. small personal warriors. 'Don't we all,' she answered, 'when first we feel the Now her laughter, gay as a girl's, died away. 'Oh, and fever heat, the boundless energy, the furious passion? do you find me a distraction, then, Nestor?' Wratha's But looking at you now .. . oh, it's perfectly obvious! expression was almost but not quite innocent as she Your leech is risen and is as one with you. Yes, you are stepped from the turret to display herself in her revealing Wamphyri. You need not concern yourself with getting robe of black bat-fur ropes. 'But a pleasant one, I trust. there any longer, Nestor. You are there! And soon your Anyway, there was nothing malicious in it. This is my fever will cool and leave you fully forged and in place, after all, and I often look out from here. Oh, I've command. Or so you'll believe, anyway.' watched you once or twice, and monitored your change. Her words shocked him in one way, pleased him in Aye, and I like what I've seen of you.' another. But shocked, pleased or both, still some spiteful Nestor came to a halt ten paces away as something or prideful urge caused him to reply: 'And was there ever dark rose up behind her, adding its darkness to the any doubt?' shadows inside the turret. And then he asked himself: 'Possibly not.' She tossed her head. Has she deliberately lured me here? Nestor had left his 167 166 her changing emotions, Wratha's guardian creature 'Possibly?' He shook his head. 'No, definitely not! And rumbled and glared green-eyed at Nestor from the if the change had been slower, d'you think I would have darkness of the turret. Knowing that the thing would react submitted to Gorvi the Guile's time limit and let them instantly to her slightest command, he took a throw me out? Hah! Gorvi setting limits, indeed! What? precautionary pace to the rear and towards his flyer where They would have to invade me in my manse and drag me it nodded vacantly some small distance away. out of it first. And believe me, the Suck had monsters no 'Just tales,' he answered. 'The way you keep your eyes less than your own! Well, and they're mine now.' hidden beneath that scarp of bone; the blue crystals in She clapped her hands. 'You have such energy, Nestor! your temples, to cool the furnace of your glance; the lie And all from your leech. But if you weren't so strong, the of your flesh, which is not a girl's but a hag's. Aye, all of change would not have been so fast. And so you see, you these things and more. For as I understand it the and your parasite fit each other like a hand in a glove. Wamphyri, especially their Ladies, are often deceptive in You are ... strong, aye.' Her eyes beneath their scarp appearance ...' lingered on him. 'But just look at you. You were a boy, For a moment she was silent, then: and now you're a man. You were - oh, a good six-footer. 'Listen to me,' she told him, but with nothing of anger. But now you're six and a half! You were handsome ... 'Listen and learn. In an hundred years - or even two well, half-handsome, I suppose, but lacking style. And hundred, if you are fortunate - you will be an old man. now you're dark, sinister, seductively powerful. Every inch But will you look like one? Of course not, because you are a true Lord of the Wamphyri. Come, step closer.' Wamphyri! Vain, as most of us are, you will look much He did so, saying: 'Canker is not dark, sinister, as you look now. It is how you will keep yourself. And it seductive. He is a monster. Gorvi is gaunt as death and is how I have kept myself. What? Would you have me devious to a fault. Only Wran fits my picture of a true wrinkle to a prune when I can look the way I do? For Lord, and he is overweight and has a wen! What's more, remember: the blood is the life, and it is also the youth! It I suspect that he and Spiro are mad. So all in all, it strikes is my gift to look this way forever, and so I shall. It is my me there's nothing glorious about the Wamphyri. Not this nature ... and yours. But I may tell you this, my handsome bunch, anyway.' Lord Nestor: Wratha was never a hag. I was beautiful, 'But their passions are glorious,' she answered quietly, and I still am. Except... her voice husky where she laid a trembling hand upon '... You have made it very plain to me that you don't his arm and felt the blood coursing and the muscles appreciate beauty, so begone.' Her voice had turned sour. bunching. 'And am I not glorious?' This is my roof and I did not give you permission to land 'You are very beautiful,' he answered, 'or would here. It would serve you right if I loosed my guardian appear to be. And yet. . . I have heard tales.' creature upon you.' 'Would appear to be? Tales?' Her voice was suddenly She began to turn away, until Nestor stepped forward cold as she drew back from him. 'What tales?' Sensing and on impulse caught her hand. Then, immediately, she turned to him ... and deliberately fell into his arms! 169 168 For roaring like a rutting shad, but five times louder, Her eyes beneath the scarp on her forehead were ablaze, the creature bore down on him where he backed off firing the figured bone with red. She half-shuttered them, from Wratha and turned to run for his flyer. He might but not so much as to subdue their scarlet allure. The even have made it, but in his haste tripped and went to ropes of her robe parted to display first the tips, then the one knee. And Wratha's warrior was on him! Then ... quivering globes of her proud breasts, and her breath was .. . HOLD! She sent a mind-blast. Do him no harm but sweet as Nestor lowered his mouth to drink from hers - simply detain him! but sweet as blood, not honey. It made no difference; The thing stopped snorting and bellowing at once; it there was no difference, not to Nestor, not now. Indeed it grabbed Nestor around the waist and by his shoulder, seemed entirely possible that honey would be bitter by and picked him up - literally, as if he were some Szgany comparison. child's toy! It drew him close and gazed at him, turning And as he kissed her and fondled her breasts, the its loathsome head this way and that the better to furious heat inside him threatened to overflow and boil observe him. And holding him in mid-air while Wratha him from within. So hot indeed that Wratha felt it, too, approached, it breathed upon him. and knew her danger. She would not be raped up here on The stench was awful! Nestor held his breath; he also her own roof, not with all the fading stars peeping down held still and made no move or protest, but simply ... and not with a huge and empty bed in her rooms waited for death. For if that was Wratha's purpose, below! But all of that must wait. She had no desire to certainly no one could deny her now. But it was not her appear easy meat. purpose. So that finally, when his kisses and fondling threatened She approached and looked up at him almost to engulf her despite her feigned reticence: Come! She curiously. He gradually eased his head to one side, away pulled herself breathlessly away and issued her mental from the face of the monster and its gaping jaws, and command. Protect me! stared down at her whey-faced. He was totally Being so close to her, Nestor heard her mind-call -and defenceless; he knew that he was at her mercy, and witnessed its result. Her creature came. death only a bite away. But he was also Wamphyri. It was one of the warriors which Nestor had seen in 'So it looks like ... like I'm not going to live for two Wrathspire's great hall: nine feet tall when upright, yet hundred years after all,' he said. And if it had been squat for its height. A thing of inch-thick, blue-grey chitin possible, he might even have shrugged. armour. A thing of claws, jaws, and dagger teeth. Its face For a moment Wratha said nothing but merely smiled. was huge and slate-grey, rat-like, flattened and sloping And he saw how cold that smile of hers was. But in from chin to forehead; yet almost human, too. What, another moment she brightened, gave herself a shake, almost? Nestor knew better than that: that indeed the and said: 'Men have always been my problem. As a thing had been human, upon a time. But its eyes were set Szgany girl, as Karl the Crag's thrall in Cragspire, even too far apart, at the sides, giving it a wide angle of vision. as Wratha the Risen in the dark and rocky gorge of It had short hind legs, long reaching arms, and a Turgosheim. Why, it was because of weak and shambling but energetic gait - as Nestor now saw. 170 171 mind-laughter came to him again. And in the cup of his malicious men that I fled west to this last great aerie, burning hand the feel of her silky breasts, and on his lips where even now they're the bane of my life; these the taste of her tainted kiss ... dullards with their manses in my stack. But you ... are not a dullard, and I think I prefer you alive. It could be I'm In Suckscar, Zahar was waiting on the return of his Lord. making a mistake, but -' Take him to his flyer. When Nestor landed his flyer in the yawning weathered Her warrior obeyed, stood Nestor on his feet close to socket of his personal landing-bay, his first lieutenant was his mount, and pushed him in that direction. Stumbling, there to take the reins and guide the floundering beast to he caught up the reins and hauled himself up into the its pen. Nestor could see that the man wanted words with saddle. And as he urged his beast to flight: him, and so waited until his flyer was penned. Then: Visit me again, some time, Wratha sent. Amazingly, there was never a hint of enmity or malice in her voice. 'Lord,' said Zahar, joining him and entering into Suckscar proper, and following him to his rooms. 'There is What, of my own free will? he replied, sarcasm a matter ...' dripping from his mind. A moment later, his flyer's 'Oh? And what is it?' Nestor turned on the sweeping thrusters uncoiled, sending mount and rider skimming stone stairs and stared at him. And read trouble in his down the gentle slope of the plateau. feral eyes. 'Out with it, Zahar.' She laughed in his mind. WeJJ, then, invite me down 'It is . . . the Lady Carmen, Lord.' into Suckscar. For I've only ever been there the once. Nestor gave a start. The Lady Car... ?' And he paused And we are neighbours, after all. with the name unspoken. But he knew well enough what - But I'm the one with warriors, in Suckscar, he and who - Zahar was talking about. And: 'Carmen,' he answered. finally said. 'Yes. And what of her?' And again he knew And now he sensed her shrug, but also her frustration. the answer before it came. So be it, my handsome Lord Nestor. But I'm sure we'll 'It is sunup, Lord. It's unlikely she'll rise up from her meet again some time. bench through sunup. But when the sun goes down, as the He shot out over the precipitous rim of the last aerie, last light fades on the crags of the barrier mountains, and and ordered his mount home. He had women of his own their shadows creep across the boulder plains towards the there, a gaggle of them. What need had he of Wratha the Icelands, then ...' Risen? But on the other hand ... the needs of the Wamphyri are great, and Wratha shone in his mind like 'We shall have a Lady in our manse,' Nestor finished it some strange dark jewel. How could his thralls compare for him, and slowly nodded. 'And for now — how goes it with her? The promise he'd felt when he held her in his with her?' arms had been ... limitless. He knew that her fire could 'How goes it?' Zahar raised an eyebrow. 'She is dead, match his any time. Lord. Or undead, as we say. She sleeps her sleep. All of which were thoughts that Nestor kept hidden as Afterwards - perhaps even a long time afterwards, when well as he could, but perhaps not well enough. For as his she is risen up - she will suffer the Change That flyer dipped below the rim, so Wratha's tinkling 172 173 Shapes, just as you are suffering it. Then she will be a Zahar. But if his lieutenant was so full of knowledge, perhaps he might have ideas, too. So Nestor asked him: true Lady, and Mistress of Suckscar.' 'What, then, do you suggest?' 'On whose authority?' Nestor snapped. Take her to the barrier mountains now.' Zahar was 'Why, on yours, Lord! For there's no denying it, you eager; he didn't fancy serving two masters, or one have brought her into being. And she will be master and one mistress, in Suckscar. 'Lie her down in a Wamphyri.' place where the sun will strike in just a few hours' time. Nestor pulled at his right earlobe. 'I had forgotten her. After that... your work will be done.' No, I had put her from my mind. It seemed a cruel way to 'No,' said Nestor, 'your work will be done. Should I keep use1 her: to use her, even unto undeath, and then destroy dogs and do my own barking?' Zahar bowed. 'As you will, her.' Lord.' Then be about it.' 'But that was then, Lord, and this is now. Perhaps you 'Yes, Lord.' He turned to go, but Nestor caught his see things differently ... now?' arm. Nestor stood tall, gritted his teeth. 'I cannot have a Lady in 'Wait! Take me to her. I would look upon this Carmen my house. My women, yes, but not a Lady. The one last time. If I'm to destroy a thing, it's as well I provisioning is the answer. See to it.' He made to turn know what I'm destroying.' away, but Zahar said: 'Lord? The provisioning?' 'Yes. Is And Zahar took him to where Carmen lay in state. Looking something amiss?' at her on the cold, raised stone slab where she lay, Nestor 'Very much so! She is Wamphyri, Lord. If your thralls felt no pity. He had thought he would - had remembered eat of her . . . it could be problematic.' that once long ago he'd known how to - but no longer 'Grind her down, fool!' Nestor snarled, as the growing knew how to. Carmen was ... she was flesh. but inexperienced thing within sent him conflicting But for all that she had lain here for more than one messages. 'For be sure she won't be up to infecting hundred hours - where a massive window ten feet deep anything in the smallest of small pieces!' had been cut through solid rock to face east, and the 'But indeed she will, Lord,' said Zahar, very quietly and winds blew in without hindrance - she was not 'cold' grimly. 'On Sunside, the Szgany stake vampires through flesh. Or she was, but not the clay-cold of death. She their hearts; they cut off their heads and burn them to was the grey, unwrinkled, undecayed and unending flesh ashes. And they are only vampires, not Wamphyri!' of undeath. Nestor knew all of this. He remembered it the moment 'If you had ...' Zahar started and paused. 'If this his lieutenant was through speaking the words. He had situation had been initiated twenty-four hours earlier, known how the Szgany would have dealt with him, if Lord, by now she would be up and about. This close to they'd caught him after he left Brad Berea's house in the sunup, her rising is delayed . . . " He fell silent. forest; or how, at that time, he had thought they would 'I have made love to this woman,' Nestor mused, deal with him. And now he felt a fool in front of sombrely. 174 175 'You loved her to death, Lord,' Zahar reminded him. Whichever, for a while after that he dreamed no more. And Nestor made up his mind. 'She is dead,' he said. And slowly, so laboriously slowly, his metamor-ph,c 'Do with her as you have described.' vampire flesh worked to heal his wounds. While beyond And to Carmen, placing his hand upon her brow: the low mouth of the cave, the river water sparkled, and Farewell. Sunside's dawn grew to a full day Whaaaat? Her answer rang in his mind like a cracked bell, sending him staggering. FareweeeellllJ? But I'm not going anywhere, Nestoooor- I'm coming baaaack! 'Ahhh!' he cried out loud, lurching like a drunkard. 'She speaks to me!' 'But that can't be.' Zahar's jaw fell open as he took his master's arm. 'See, she still sleeps, and will continue to do so until the change wakes her. Or until the sun finds her wanting. Carmen is dead, until she wakes or dies the true death.' 'Fool!' Nestor ranted, pointing a trembling finger at the shrouded figure on the raised slab. 'I tell you she spoke. And she ... knows me!' And: Oh, yesss. I know you now, Carmen told him inside his head. You are Nestor of the Wamphyri - my would-be muuurderer! No would-be about it! 'Take her!' Nestor gasped, as he was sent staggering yet again. 'Take her now, to the barrier mountains. You do it - you, Zahar. Do it now, and make sure it's done well!' And Zahar did it. That was how it had started ... And in his fevered dreams where he lay in a dark, damp cave under the bank of a Sunside river, Nestor shuddered as he often shuddered in his sleep. Proof, perhaps, that something of the old Nestor lingered on deep inside. Or perhaps not. Perhaps he shuddered simply in recognition of his own monstrousness. 176 PART THREE The Opposition I Perchorsk It had been snowing heavily in Moscow when the disklike British Airways VTOL Hawk stooped down through its landing window and Ben Trask, lan Goodly, and one hundred and ten other 'businessmen' disembarked. Turkur Tzonov himself had met them off the plane; by-passing customs, he'd seen his guests out of the airport and into a brand new, Moscow-built, Ford-Volga Premier, their transport to a small military airport ten kilometres cut of the city. From there they'd travelled by jet-copter all the way, with a fuelling stop in Kirov before the streamlined wasp of an aircraft turned onto a more nearly northerly heading over Berezniki, and set out to parallel the snow- capped Urals for a further two hundred miles. In all, the journey from London to Perchorsk had taken two hours fifty-five minutes, and it was 6:00 p.m. local time as the aircraft switched back to hover-mode, sidestepped between gloomy peaks under lowering clouds, and gentled down into the dull grey Perchorsk ravine. Back in Moscow, at the airports and between them, Tzonov had been a courteous, efficient escort. Full of mainly solicitous inquiries - about the weather in London (the winter was proving to be a hard one all over Europe), the physical wellbeing of his guests following their flight from England, the quality of service inflight, and so on - the head of Soviet ESPionage had 181 made an energetic but paradoxically empty or at best dared of their immediate future. While up front in the ephemeral host. Ephemeral because his comments and bubble cockpit, the pilot and co-pilot in their dowdy, ill- fitting Army Aviator jump suits would glance back every questions were mainly meaningless, and empty because now and then, nodding at Goodly and smiling blank, he studiously avoided mentioning the real reason why ostensibly affable smiles. Trask and Goodly were here. But now, as the jet-copter descended into the Perchorsk Trask believed he knew why: when Tzonov required to ravine and Goodly shook Trask awake, so Turkur Tzonov know anything really important, he would probably pick stirred and a few seconds later sat up without so much as a it right out of their minds; at least, he would expect to be yawn. And all three stared out through clear wraparound able to do so. But, in any case, he wouldn't attempt it until flexon panels in the cabin's walls and floor, down into the after they'd seen Perchorsk's prisoner; it would be depths of the gorge, and watched its slate-grey scarps and pointless to try to discover their opinions before they'd crags floating up around them towards the fading light of had sufficient time to form them. Which meant that for the bitter cold Urals night. While down below: the time being the Russian would continue in his guise of There were lights in the pass; a helicopter landing zone companionably disarming escort and guide. was marked by a circle of yellow strobes rotating Nevertheless (and despite that the British mindspies had clockwise on the concrete plateau of a dam's wide wall; taken certain precautions against Tzonov's probing), they searchlights illuminated the chopper's vertical descent, deliberately avoided thinking about Harry Keogh. This their glare mirrored in a weaving silver lattice on the required an effort of mental vigilance which would not be surface of an otherwise leaden lake. All of which was easy to maintain over a protracted period of time, but reflected from ice-sheathed rock scarps, and made scin- short term it wasn't too difficult: there was in any case tillant in the refraction of freezing spray from the shining more than sufficient to focus their minds upon without arcs of four huge spouts of water erupting from conduits concerning themselves with any conjectural connection in the lower dam wall. between Perchorsk's alien intruder and a man who had Shading their eyes, Trask and Goodly glanced at each been dead for all of sixteen years. other and thought much the same thought: that there were From Moscow to Perchorsk, Tzonov had been mainly far too many lights, a veritable dazzle of them! Perhaps silent. Having explained how his work had kept him busy someone had decided that they shouldn't see too much: a the previous night right through until the early hours, futile exercise in camouflage at best; American spysats immediately after take-off he'd stretched out his legs, had had the Perchorsk ravine mapped out in fine detail for reclined in his seat and fallen asleep - apparently. Thus close on twenty years now. Impossible to hide something his guests, the only other passengers aboard the small, as big as this from electronic eyes-in-the-sky capable of short-range, military reconnaissance aircraft, had been left reading headline newsprint from orbits a hundred miles to their own devices. For Trask this was no problem: up! And in any case, what was there to hide? Nothing, not following Tzonov's example, he slept for an hour, leaving any longer. Or if the precog Goodly awake to read what he 182 183 tions, but one which the Russians had well under control . powered lasers, even aooui a tneorencai iviagma MUIUI . . didn't they? It had always been assumed that they did. which might tap the gravitational energies at Earth's core. Until now .. . Finally the first-hand report of a western sympathizer A 'defensive system' which had backfired from day one, had come leaking out of one of the logging camps east of the Perchorsk Projekt had been intended as the USSR's Perchorsk. Trask had been privy to the contents of the answer to America's SDI or Star Wars scenario. The document and remembered them to this day. Not the object was to create an impenetrable dome of destructive work of an educated man, indeed that of a peasant in energy twenty miles high in the sky, which would 'kill off forced exile - a 'relocated' ex-Ukrainian dissident -still any and all incoming enemy missiles. An umbrella, so the wording had been vivid and evocative. that no one in the whole wide world could ever again It had been a bright clear night, with the shimmer of threaten to rain on Mother Russia's parade. As soon as it aurora boreaJis like a pale shifting curtain in the northern had proved itself in an exhaustive series of tests, a device sky. The observer, a lumberjack out hunting near the such as this would on its own elevate the USSR to an mountain pass, had been aware as always of the distant unassailable position as the planet's Number One hum of giant turbines, transmitted through the earth from Superpower. the Projekt some four kilometres away. But as the whine That was what Perchorsk had been all about... until its of the engines had wound itself up, the man had stopped epic failure had jeopardized not only the USSR but the and looked back through the evergreens - to see the rim entire human race. As Trask came more fully awake he of the Perchorsk ravine bathed in a wash of flickering started to think back more clearly on what he knew of the light like pale foxfire! whole can of worms: Suddenly, it had seemed that the night held its breath The Russians had built and tested the Projekt -tested it ... only to expel it in a great gasp or sigh. And as the just the once, and disastrously - back in the early eighties. whining of the turbines had climbed higher yet, a beam But despite their best efforts at technological camouflaging, of pure white light had shot up from the ravine, turning the results of that test were seen and recorded not only by night to day as it bounded into the sky! A pulse of light, American spy satellites but also by friendly forces on the which lasted just long enough to leave its after-image ground. And when all of the reports had been processed ... burning on the eyeballs and then was gone. And in its . . . At the time, and while no one had known exactly wake — what was going on down there in the guts of the - A bright clear night ... until then. But as the weird Perchorsk ravine, still it had been sufficient to kick-start white searchlight had blinked into and out of being and the USA's Space Defense Initiative into real being. And in Perchorsk's turbines fell abruptly silent, so a hot wind small, powerful, very secretive circles throughout the had blown down from the crags, and within the hour Western World there had taken place a good many clouds had boiled up out of nowhere to rain a strange worried discussions about such things as APB warm rain. Then, as if intensified by the rain, a smell of 184 185 burning - an acrid, electrical burning, like ozone maybe? - with Pandora's box: they each harboured plagues which, had seemed to permeate the damp night air. But before in their diverse ways, might oh so easily have that, indeed within minutes of the flash of light itself, endangered and even doomed the entire world. And one there had been the sirens. Perchorsk's sirens, like the voice of them - Perchorsk itself - might do so even now . .. of the ravine wailing its agonies. But in fact they were the The jet-copter's passengers sensed rather than felt its agonies of men. landing as the aircraft gentled to a touchdown on the There had been an accident, a big one. And for the next dam wall. Just as surely, Trask's thoughts also came fortnight... helicopters shuttling in and out, ambulances in back to earth. Looking out through windows already the mountain passes, and men in radiation suits blurred by a thin sheath of ice formed from the mist of decontaminating the walls of the ravine. And the one the dam's cascade, he made out a figure in a white parka whisper that got out as local Soviet authorities moved to waiting in the safety margin beyond the lethal glimmer shut down certain 'fifth column elements' in the logging of the fan. Then the high-pitched whining of the rotors camps was this: blowback! The Perchorsk experiment had wound down to a reassuring whup, whup, whup, and the discharged itself into the sky, all right, but at the same co-pilot came hunch-shouldered from the cockpit to let time it had backfired into the underground complex that down a curving side panel into preformed steps. housed it. And like some fantastic, free-wheeling Signalling that they should watch their heads, Tzonov incinerator - melting men and machinery alike - it had ushered Trask and Goodly down onto a rubber-clad almost blown the lid off the place before burning itself surface and guided them through the rotor's bluster out! towards the figure in the parka: a statuesque platinum After that... Trask remembered several things which the blonde whose looks were classically Scandinavian. Smiling Soviets had not been able to cover up: like the apparent a welcome, she handed parkas to the British espers and mass migration of many of their top-flight doctors, mainly helped them shrug into them. Then, turning to the head radiation specialists, from Moscow, Omsk, and of Soviet E-Branch, she hugged him, covered his Sverdlovsk, into the understaffed and ill-equipped frontier shoulders with a wing of her own hugely oversized hospitals in Beresovo, Ukhta and Izhma. No one had parka, and hurried him towards an open jeep where a experienced much difficulty figuring out what that was all driver sat waiting. Smiling blandly, pampered and proud of about: as well as all of the dead, they must have taken a it, Tzonov offered no slightest resistance to any of this. good many badly injured men out of the ravine. Since Trask and Goodly exchanged covert glances, and the latter when the experiment if not Perchorsk itself had been raised a querying, even wistful eyebrow which Trask abandoned. answered with a shrug. There was nothing for it but to And so there had been only the one test firing, but one follow on behind Tzonov and his lady. too many. The damage it caused had been permanent, and Trask took the seat alongside the driver, which left his Turkur Tzonov was correct to liken Perchorsk to the precog colleague to cram himself into the back of the Chernobyl Sarcophagus. Trask would go even further; in vehicle with Tzonov and the girl, where they huddled his mind both places had much in common 186 187 like lovers. Quite obviously, they were lovers. 'Dam!' She held out her hand and grinned Introductions would be out of the question over the throb mischievously. 'No, not a swear-word, ju st my name! of the jet-copter's engine, the stuttering cough of its idling Sigrid Dam — or Siggi, to my friends.' Like Tzonov's, her rotors, and the clatter of the jeep's exhaust; Tzonov didn't accent was scarcely noticeable. What there was of it even attempt it but confined himself to hugging the girl wasn't Russian, but Trask believed he'd detected . . . and whispering something in her ear. Her answering what, a Swedish lilt? Or Danish? Possibly. The surname laughter was whipped away by turbulence from the rotors was Danish, certainly. as the jeep turned right off the dam wall onto a road 'Ben Trask,' he smiled. 'And this is my colleague, lan dynamited from the face of the ravine. Goodly. I'm sure we'll enjoy being your friends.' A hundred and fifty yards up the precipitous road, the As she shook hands with the gaunt, gloomy-seeming driver brought his vehicle to a halt on a level precog, Turkur Tzonov snapped his fingers, exchanged hardstanding and leaned on his horn until massive, concerned glances with all three and exclaimed: 'Ah! motorized, steel-jawed doors under a frowning overhang Unforgivable! What must you think of me, to forget the rumbled open. It was the way into Perchorsk, the 'throat' introductions? But . . . there was no opportunity . . . you of the subterranean complex. And as a swath of light must forgive me, my dear.' And turning more fully to blazed out and the jeep drove through it into a brightly his guests: 'Siggi is . . . my constant companion.' illuminated interior, so the jaws closed again, shutting out 'A mutually stimulating friendship, I'm sure,' Trask the gaunt ravine from view. Finally the jeep's motor was said, and tried desperately to keep his thoughts to switched off and its row faded to an almost painful himself. But with a girl like this (no, a woman like this, silence. as he now saw), it was difficult not to envy his Russian At last Trask and Goodly could hear themselves think, counterpart. and now they must guard against others hearing them Sigrid Dam was thirtyish, taller than average, and think. As they climbed out of the jeep, Tzonov said, (Trask guessed) slim and athletic under that parka. The 'Welcome to the Perchorsk Projekt . . . or rather, to the garment seemed cut for a giant and covered her like a system of passageways and caverns which once housed it. poncho half-way down her thighs, yet still looked stylish For now, of course, the Projekt exists in name only, and on Siggi. But then, she would probably have the same the complex houses something else entirely.' effect on a potato sack. From the bottom of the parka From the jet-copter to this place - these outer environs down, her long tapering legs were clad in shimmering of the Perchorsk complex — had taken no more than a black ski-pants, while beneath it she wore a matching minute and a half maximum, but Trask was glad of his black top. The wide bottoms of the pants formed bells parka. Likewise lan Goodly; in such a short time, the over fur-lined calf-boots. bitter cold of the ravine had seemed to eat right into his Under expressive blonde eyebrows, Siggi's eyes were bones. Both men rubbed their hands briskly and Trask the deep blue of summer fjords; her mouth was perfectly turned to the girl. 'We really ought to thank you for these shaped if a little cold; her nose was just a fraction tip- excellent garments, Miss, er .. . ?' tilted, hinting at a strong, even aggressive personality. 188 189 All in all, and while her skin was marginally paler than Goodly shook his head, shrugged apologetically. 'Far Tzonov's, the general impression which Trask received too specific,' he said. was much the same: one of radiant good health. And yet 'Anyway,' Turkur was enjoying this, 'I didn't arrange ... the picture was marred; something didn't add up. for the parkas until twenty minutes before we landed!' Something about her eyes, maybe? Trask thought he And Trask thought (but to himself), Oh? When you knew what it was but would wait and see what developed. were supposed to be sJeeping? He'd known, of course, And meanwhile he wondered about Siggi's relationship that Tzonov wasn't asleep . .. but if not asleep, what then? with Tzonov - their real relationship. That is, he Merely resting? Or had he been talking to Siggi Dam? wondered if it was real. In which case ... Now Trask saw how everything fitted. Like the pale Just seeing this woman in the company of Turkur purple in the orbits of Siggi's eyes, which betrayed her Tzonov (and despite that they were not opposites), Trask telepathy - but only to someone who knew his business. could easily understand their mutual attraction. In a world To most other men that slightly bruised look would only full of mainly mundane, unexceptional people, a pair such serve to complement her sensuality, might even be as this would naturally gravitate together. Why, they mistaken for a symptom of her dissipation lingering over might easily be the leading roleplay-ers in a Hollywood after the excesses of a long night. Once again he was epic from Trask's youth: people too rare or beautiful to aware of her sharp glance, but this time she was frowning. even exist - except among their contemporaries in a Goodly offered a rare if somewhat tortured smile. 'And surreal, celluloid world apart. so Siggi's a powerful telepath. I thought so. But such Trask caught her looking at him . .. what, beauty and talent combined! It hardly seems fair! I appreciatively? At which moment she blinked and said: suppose I should have foreseen it -' he looked at 'Anyway, it's Turkur you must thank for the parkas. They Tzonov:'— that you two would be a perfect match.' were his idea. Your overcoats may be just the thing in 'Birds of a feather?' Tzonov answered his smile. 'Aren't London, but we're fifteen to twenty degrees colder here!' we all?' And to Siggi, before anyone could say anything Goodly turned to Tzonov, and in his somewhat fluting else: 'My dear, will you see our guests to their rooms? It voice said, 'It's all very considerate of you. You seem to won't be the Ritz, I'm afraid, but as Siggi pointed out this have taken our welfare so much into account - and all so isn't London. An hour or so on your own - time enough to far in advance.' There was something in his wording clean up and rest a while after your journey? - and then which caused Trask to glance at him. I'll collect you for a tour of the place.' But Tzonov merely grinned. 'Ah, yes, of course. Your Trask nodded. 'During which ... will we get to see your penchant for the future, Mr Goodly - er, lan?' And then to visitor?' his woman, by way of explanation: 'lan is a precog, Siggi.' 'Certainly,' Tzonov answered. 'And a lot more than that She clapped her hands. 'But in that case ... perhaps you into the bargain. This is a fascinating place, Ben, with a had foreseen the provision of the parkas?' fascinating history. But with all the good will 190 191 and the gJasnost in the world, it's not the sort of place you ... yes, I agree. So maybe he'll be more interested in us get to see every day . ..' later.' Goodly nodded and said, 'I'm sure he will ...' And A few minutes later in the privacy of their 'rooms' - a pair after a moment, 'You know he wasn't sleeping in the of steel-walled, interconnected cells, more like -Trask and chopper.' Goodly conversed in lowered tones. Despite that in 'Tzonov?' Trask dried his face. 'No, he'd simply chosen accommodation this austere it was difficult to see where to withdraw. Turkur Tzonov has a talent, lan, one which bugs could be hidden, Goodly had already checked his he's used to using. But with us he can't, and still expect own room. Using a tiny detector which doubled as a our cooperation. So in the close confines of the jet- pocket calculator, he'd satisfied himself that the place was copter he opted out, backed off and chose to "sleep" right clean. Then he'd gone through into Trask's - what, through the flight. That way he wouldn't be tempted to compartment? - to sit on his lumpy army bed and watch look at us — or look into us — face to face. It seems he the other wet-shaving over a dented aluminium washhand genuinely needs our help and doesn't want to scare us basin. As they talked, their glances met in the mirror over off. Well, and it isn't without precedence. There was a the basin. time when the Opposition's top man worked alongside Seeing the detector, Trask had just this moment pulled ours on the Bodescu affair, too.' a wry face and given his head a shake, sending bubbles of 'That was before Tzonov's time,' Goodly pointed out. shaving foam flying. That's not necessary,' he said. 'I'd 'And it was a disaster! Our Branches don't work well know it if something was other than it appears to be. It's together.' all as you see it: cheap and nasty but clean as can be. The Trask put on his shirt. 'Is that what you foresee: a same goes for our hosts, too: they're squeaky clean — so disaster?' far.' Goodly looked more gaunt and morose than ever. Goodly raised an eyebrow. 'You find no fault with their 'Ben, you know as well as anyone that I'm frightened of behaviour?' my talent. Most precogs are. The future has an uncanny Trask tidied up his short grey sideburns. 'Not really. knack of doing what we expect but not how we expect Do you? Ask yourself this: what welcome would we have it. I read it sparingly, and not too far ahead, because ... given Tzonov if we'd known in advance that he was well, like Turkur Tzonov's motives, it's not to be trusted. coming to London?' No, I don't foresee a disaster - not yet anyway - but it Goodly shrugged. 'Our best men would have been on won't be a joyride either ...' the job from square one. With their science and sorcery, Trask studied his grave face. 'So, can we simply say they'd be all over him!' that you're . . . uneasy?' 'Even if he was there to do us a favour?' Goodly nodded. 'Uneasy, yes. Look at it this way: my Goodly raised an eyebrow. 'In which case we'd let him knowledge of the future springs from the past and the get it done, and then -' present. With me it's a sort of unconscious '- We'd be all over him with our science and sorcery extrapolation, where I "remember" what's still to come like you 192 193 remember your dreams: with fuzzy edges and lacking in 'Revenge? He intends to use us, then punish us?' fine detail. But despite that a dream will rapidly fade; if Goodly shrugged. 'He's a true son of Mother Russia, it's a good one it can set you up for the rest of the day, this Turkur Tzonov. He can't bear it that she's the where by the same token a nightmare will only upset you world's sick old lady. He bears a grudge against everyone and make you irritable. Well, that's how I feel right now: who had a hand in her decline, despite that the actual itchy and irritable. Now keep that in mind and breakdown was no one's fault but her own. And so in concentrate on what we know of Tzonov, his psychological his own field, he'll do whatever he can to even up the profile.' score.' Trask said, musingly, 'I know something about his 'But not until afterwards,' Trask said. physical profile: we should have known about this Siggi 'Eh?' Dam! She wasn't in his file and so has to be a recent 'After he's used us - and only then if he can get clean conquest.' away with it. You're right, of course. I notice it whenever Goodly shook his head and said, 'Yes, but I'm not he uses the word "glasnost", meaning openness: the fact talking about her. I'm talking about Tzonov's mind, the that it's the one word that doesn't ring true. But we know way he thinks. He's proud, dedicated, and a bad loser. he's looking for a position in the party's Demokra-tik That's the thread that connects his past, present, and Politburo and so follows Premier Gustav Turchin's line - future. It's what steered him to where he is now: head of but only because he has to, not because he's a true Russia's E-Branch. And it's what makes me itchy.' believer in world unity. Oh, Turkur Tzonov's no one- Trask couldn't see where this was leading. 'Explain?' man resurgence of old-style hardline communism, no, 'Proud,' Goodly pressed. 'Of himself, of his abilities, but he is ambitious. And you're probably right that his and definitely of his country, despite its Humpty Dumpty ambitions extend to the entire USSR. Or what used to be act: that it fell so badly apart the rest of us have scarcely the USSR. He would like to see Russia out there in the been able to put it together again. Proud and dedicated: race again, with himself in the driving seat, and he'd to his talent, his job, and to the security of Mother relish the opportunity to run over a few toes and settle Russia. Proud, dedicated, and a very poor loser, who some old scores on his way up the main drag. Which to knows the entire history of his organization from Gregor put it another way is like saying he's ... what, a patriot?' Borowitz, Dragosani and the Chateau Bron-nitsy, right up Goodly nodded. 'From his point of view, anyway.' to the present moment in every minute detail. Knows all 'And from ours?' of its triumphs and especially its tragedies ... and knows 'He's dangerous -' Goodly answered, '- but not just who to blame for most of them!' yet. And that's the other thing about his psychological 'Harry Keogh?' profile: the fact that only a very thin wire separates his Goodly shook his head, then changed his mind and genius from downright instability. And just like a nodded. 'If not Harry, the ones he was working for,' he tightrope, that's a wire we daren't jerk about too much. So said. 'Namely, us. E-Branch.' for the moment, while I admit I'm itchy, I'm not yet sweating.' 194 195 Beyond the bulkhead door, the corridor reached out 'And when you start to sweat?' ahead, wound to the left and receded from sight. Strip The precog nodded, promising: 'You'll be the first to lighting in the ceiling loaned everything a blue-tinged know it.' sheen and flicker, humming electrically where sections of Looking at Goodly, Trask made no reply. He knew old neon tube were starting to short out. Despite the that the precog would be right, but he couldn't help absence of tracks, platform, benches, still Trask found the wishing he didn't look so much like a mortician ... place strangely reminiscent of a certain neglected London tube station in the wee small hours, one which he must Later, Tzonov guided his guests through Perchorsk's have used frequently fifteen years ago before they were labyrinth of corridors and levels down towards its core, all refitted, but couldn't name or bring to mind now which the handful of men who knew of its existence except as an echo of this place. had christened 'the Gate'. But there was one other big difference between some 'You probably know the background to all of this as nameless underground station of the early Nineties and well as I do,' he said. 'I was a mere youth at the time, an this place: evidence of that terrific physical heat which avid student of ESPionage at the Moscow academy. I Tzonov had mentioned, sufficient to blacken and even knew nothing of all this; my forte was metaphysics, not partially melt the rough rock of the ceiling, until it had physics. Anyway, when they tested their device it run down like lava to solidify on the cooler metal of wall backfired, and the energy it released was unbelievable! panels and bulky steel stanchions. Underfoot, rubber floor In the immediate vicinity of the pile matter flowed like tiles had burned through to naked steel plates which water, and radiating outwards from it . . . I'm told there themselves were buckled right out of alignment; while in were three kinds of "heat". Nuclear radiation, though the walls, veins and drips and splashes of red, fused not as much as one might expect; then the physical heat copper were all that remained of ancient wiring. of combustion; and finally an alien heat which warped, Leading the way, Tzonov nodded curtly to a group of melted and fused things together, but without burning.' lab-smocked scientists where they leaned against a Tzonov paused to open a door-sized hatch in a steel pockmarked wall and compared notes. They still study bulkhead, ushered Trask and Goodly through and this place as avidly - should I perhaps say as morbidly? - followed on behind. 'As for the radioactivity,' he continued as ever,' he wryly commented, when the scientists had been on the other side, 'it has been cleared up now. A very left behind. They measure, examine, photograph and few hotspots remain. But don't worry, we shall of course sample, without ever reaching any positive conclusion avoid them. There are several places we cannot avoid, other than the one Viktor Luchov reached all those years however, which define various zones of contamination: ago: that when the blowback occurred the pile ate itself the areas in which those common - and alien -heat and mundane matter bent inwards and outwards, and even energies which I mentioned expended themselves. This backwards, in space-time - until it warped through the corridor is an example of "common" heat, the sort that "wall" of this universe and created the Gate.' burns.' 196 197 better to see something than to have an accurate Tzonov glanced at his guests and quickly added: 'Oh, description? Well, I take your meaning, of course, and don't worry, I'm not going to give too much away! What? normally would agree with you. Except there are things Why, our best physicists have been working at it for here which were better sight unseen. They lie in an area twenty years and getting nowhere, so don't take it as an that suffered the other sort of heat, which may only be insult if I doubt that you two will discover the secrets of experienced in the melting pot of space-time. If it were the universe in a few short hours, days, or even weeks! my choice I would not show such things to you, but since Anyway, your agent Michael J. Simmons was here that they lie between us and the Gate . ..' He shrugged again time; and the Necroscope Harry Keogh too, before you and led the way down the stairs. 'I'm told that Viktor chased him out of this world. Surely one or both of them Luchov called these the magmass levels.' have already filled in most of the blank spots for you.' 'Magmass?' lan Goodly was trembling slightly where Trask shook his head. 'Harry was never able to stay he followed on after the others on uncertain legs, here too long,' he said, looking the Russian straight in the descending into a dimly lit region between levels proper. eye. 'And even he had to admit that the math was too Trask sensed the tremor in his colleague's voice and much for him. The Gate was an accident, when the guessed it was his talent working. Well, Tzonov had tried universe suffered a power surge and its computer crashed. to warn them. And: That was how he explained it, anyway. As for Jazz 'Yes,' the Russian answered, but very quietly now, as Simmons: he never returned to England and lives in the he came to a halt. And quite unnecessarily, he pointed. Greek islands still. In those days our Department of Dirty 'Magmass. Now you can have the "sight" and "feel" of it, Tricks pulled a fast one on him. He's never forgiven us, and perhaps you will even feel something of what it must and I for one don't blame him. The same must be said for have been like, when Perchorsk was gutted like a soft- Zek Foener, but in her case it was your people who gave bellied fish.' her the runaround.' Trask and Goodly looked, and knew that they had Tzonov shrugged. Trask had given him the opportunity entered a region of sheerest fantasy. They stared into the to read his mind, and he hadn't wasted it. Every word the dim recesses of a weird chaos, a vastly disordered cavern British esper had spoken had been the truth, as he saw it. or vault, where the lighting was deliberately subdued so 'Well, times change,' the Russian said. And by way of as to hide the most monstrous effects. For certainly what changing the subject: 'So actually, this is all quite new to little could be seen was frightening, or disconcerting to you?' say the least. It was as if the stairs had carried them out of 'Most of it,' Trask told him. The sight and feel of it, this universe into a place where human laws no longer certainly. A picture is better than a hundred words. The applied, where geometry and substance and science itself physical reality is better than a blueprint.' had failed . . . and the magmass had taken over. 'Oh?' Tzonov raised a thin eyebrow as he came to a halt Tzonov was on the move again, and drawn in his at the head of a flight of aluminium stairs, which from footsteps the British espers followed, silent where they their bright sheen were a recent fitment. 'It's 199 198 twisting and twining through all the warped, congealed gazed on these creations of drugged hallucination and mass of this earthly yet hideously immundane material - madness. Down through a tangle of warped plastic, fused there ran those weird wormhole energy channels which stone and blistered metal they passed, where on both sides had carried the flux of a nightmarish nuclear cancer amazingly consistent (in so much inconsistency) smooth- through the heart of Perchorsk, reducing it to this. bored tunnels some two or three feet in diameter wound Looking at it (and Trask found that he must look at and twisted like the wormholes of ocean parasites in it, that his eyes were drawn to it as in some morbid rotting coral, except they drove through solid rock, fascination), he began to feel nauseous and was sure crumpled girders, and other, far less recognizable debris or that Goodly must feel the same. Until suddenly, looming residua. on the left of the walkway and bringing a sense of And Trask thought: It's like an alien alchemy! Some renewed reality, a perfectly circular opening appeared in titan force tried to make everything one here, or change it the face of the wall of warped rock. Here the catwalk all to a new unreality. turned left into the mouth of the shaft, widened out to Looking at him, Tzonov nodded. 'Yes,' he said. To become a rubber-coated stairway, then continued its change it, or deform it beyond all recognition. It's not so descent towards a region of eerie illumination down much that the various materials have been fused by heat below. and fire, rather that they've been folded in like a mass of The core,' Tzonov informed his guests tonelessly as a dough, or Plasticine in the hands of a vast mad child. But group of armed, uniformed soldiers came clattering up this is only a small part of it, and I certainly won't show through the shaft, heading in the opposite direction. you the worst. No, for metal and plastic and rock were not The hole or cavern which was eaten out of the solid the only materials which suffered this awful magmass rock when the atomic pile imploded and formed the change, but at least they are not... what? Biodegradable? I Gate: a most unnatural cavern, as you will see. The am sure you take my meaning.' guard has just now been changed and these soldiers Goodly shuddered. 'What a horror!' he said. released from duty. Ah, but see how eager they are! The Tzonov agreed. The more accessible areas were cleansed core is not a pleasant place. And even though the Gate is with hard acids, while other places were simply sealed now secure, made safe to the very best of our ability, still off. A good many of the magmass moulds simply don't we guard it. One can never tell...' bear scrutiny.' At the lower end of the shaft there was a railed The stairs had descended to a bed of magmass, levelling landing, this time of steel and supported on steel into a catwalk along a vertical wall of unbroken rock like stanchions. Flanked by Trask and Goodly, Tzonov went the face of a cliff. Seen over the aluminium handrails and to the rail and leaned on it, staring grimly at the scene through the metal lattice of the walkway, the floor was below. He had called this place a 'cavern' of sorts, but a chaotically humped and anomalous, where different most unnatural one. Now the British espers could see materials were so mixed as to have no individual identity why. whatsoever. And looping the loop - 201 200 It was like being in a cavern, but there was no way work. Until now my interest in Perchorsk has been purely one might mistake it for any ordinary sort of cave. The academic.' (He had made a simple mistake! Trask saw the solid rock had been hollowed out in the shape of a lie immediately, but knew that it wouldn't be to his perfect sphere, a giant bubble in the very roots of the advantage to point it out. He said nothing, letting Tzonov Ural Mountains - but a bubble well over a hundred and continue:) 'When one considers the esoteric aspect of this twenty feet in diameter! The curving, shiny-black wall all latest incident ... obviously I was the right man for the around was glass-smooth except for the worm-holes job.' which riddled it everywhere, even in the domed ceiling. Goodly seemed puzzled. 'But four days, in there? He Where the three men were standing, the mouth of the must be starving!' shaft pointed downwards at forty-five degrees directly at Tzonov looked at him reprovingly. 'Do you think we're the centre of the space - the core itself -which was all barbarians, then? He has been fed, of course. Indeed, it occupied by what looked like a huge steel ball supported was an opportunity we really couldn't afford to miss: to on a tripod of massive hydraulic rams. The ball would find out what he eats. Oh yes, for other creatures have have to be a little more than thirty feet in diameter. come through the Gate before this one, lan, whose 'Inside it, the Gate,' Tzonov explained. 'We cased it in appetites were ... well, suspect to say the least!' Without carbon steel a foot thick, welded together in three another word he led the way down steel steps to a sections. The rams support the sections and can apply perimeter walkway, and out over a wide gantry catwalk to massive pressure to keep them welded together, if it were the enigmatic, shining ball of carbon steel... ever necessary. But within the shell . . . the Gate supports itself, floating there dead centre, right where it was born on the night of the accident, when the test was aborted.' Trask looked at him in the painful blue-white glare of faulty strip lighting. 'And that's where you've trapped your visitor? In there? Inside the Gate?' 'Obviously. No way we can let him through, until we know what we're dealing with.' 'I think it's time we saw him,' Trask said. 'How long has he been here?' 'Four days,' Tzonov told him. 'After Premier Turchin himself was informed, I was the first to know of his arrival. Ordered here from Moscow, I saw, assessed, contacted you. You know the rest. You'll understand, of course, that the complex isn't my ordinary place of 202 connected to a sprinkler system whose outlets were aimed down onto the inner walkway and gantry. Should II the system be activated, a hard acid rain would drench this entire area. So much for scientists, consoles, and The Visitor, and a Visit catwalk! Draconian but effective, the system left no room for speculation about the inimical nature of what these people might be called upon to deal with down here. And everywhere Trask looked, the claustrophobic wall Around the steel sphere, encircling it like an inner ring of of the bubble cavern formed a shiny-black backdrop, Saturn, but so close as to almost touch the ball itself, the glass-smooth except for the wormholes riddling it through railed catwalk was maybe ten feet wide; it was equipped all its quarters, in the upward curving floor, encircling with consoles, computers, viewscreens. A handful of walls, and domed ceiling alike; that dull black glitter of scientists and technicians were seated at a master all-enclosing, seemingly endless surface, alive with its console; others moved around the core's catwalk carefully myriad firefly reflections of the inadequate lighting measuring and examining, concentrating on their various system: like standing in the heart of some strange dark instruments and tasks. crystal. As for what Turkur Tzonov had said — that the Crossing the gantry, Trask had absorbed all he could of core was not a 'pleasant' place — well, that had to be the the so-called 'cavern'. There were no soldiers in understatement of the century! Trask knew that if he attendance at the core itself, but a trio of emplacements were a Russian soldier, he'd consider Perchorsk a on the perimeter under the inward curving walls were punishment posting! manned and equipped with high velocity cannons, and As the three men approached the master console, so the battery directly opposite the master console was one of the seated scientists turned, saw them, and gave a further equipped with a small tracked vehicle bearing a small, involuntary start. He reached out and flipped a dull metal container and the obscene, squat-nozzled switch. View-screens dissolved at once into white static hoses of what could only be a flamethrower unit. Well and dazzling oscillations, quiet conversations tailed into read in what few documents were available concerning silence, all heads turned and cold stares greeted the the Perchorsk Gate, Trask knew enough to appreciate the newcomers. Tzonov, smiling thinly, told Trask and significance of all of these 'precautions'. Goodly: 'As you see, they don't even trust me yet, let Likewise he understood the meaning of a trio of alone you two! They consider me "muscle" - like the scaffolding towers which reached up from the curving KGB - and here in the United Soviet States we don't yet floor higher than the gantry, consoles and central sphere have your own degree of cooperation between mind and itself, to where a triangular framework suspended from muscle. Also, they are scientists, while we are mere the ceiling joined them up and strengthened the structure. metaphysicians, fakirs in whom they have no great faith. Central in this metal web, a nest of carboys was Fortunately we know that we are more truly mind 204 205 behind the steel section. The metal is ten inches thick, than they could ever give us credit for. And in any case, armoured on the inside; what you see on the screen there no one here may gainsay me.' is no more than four or five feet from where you're His smile went out like a light turned off as he standing; if you hammered on the panel you could give snapped some order in Russian at the console controller. him a headache.' The man sat there staring at him for a moment, but Despite that Goodly knew he'd been rumbled, he clung Tzonov's authority - and his eyes - had already won the to his pretext. 'How do you feed him?' battle of wills. The scientist's lips twitched a little in the Tzonov pointed. 'You see that groove in the metal? Not left-hand corner as he switched the screens on again. merely a groove but a hatch, a door, hermetically sealed And: and magnetically locked. Down at the bottom there, that 'Our visitor,' said Tzonov. circular mark is an even smaller door, through which we It was sudden, but the British espers had been expecting pass food. Of course, we don't do it while he's awake but something like it and were able to cover their when he's sleeping. And now that he's satisfied to eat what astonishment. At first the white dazzle - a backdrop of we give him, we could just as easily poison him. Or we pure white, a veritable snowfield - got in the way, but as might pump lethal gas in there, or squirt acid at him. We their eyes adjusted to the blaze and focused on the man might do so even now, if we can't satisfy ourselves that on the screens, they saw that he was Harry Keogh - or he's just a man ...' Alec Kyle - or both of them. He was the Necroscope, or a During which conversation, Trask had taken the twenty-year-old version of him, anyway! opportunity to satisfy himself (albeit erroneously) that Harry Junior/ Trask and Goodly could scarcely be first impressions must be correct: this was Harry Keogh blamed for thinking the selfsame thought, which they Junior, the son of the Necroscope, who as an infant had kept to themselves as best they could. As it happened spirited his ailing mother away into an alien dimension. they were right in one sense, and totally wrong in He looked maybe ten years younger than he should, but another; but out of the corner of his eye Trask saw there again he'd come to manhood in a different world. Turkur Tzonov's satisfied nod, and wondered if the Still, the discrepancy was such as to cause Trask to frown. telepath had zoomed in on them. Tzonov didn't keep He felt that he wasn't seeing the whole picture. As for him in suspense. what he was seeing: 'I think so, too,' he said, an indicator that Trask could The man in the viewscreen was seated cross-legged on stop trying to conceal his suspicions and give his full what was barely discernible as a white floor. It seemed no attention to the scene in the scanners. He did so. different to the rest of his surroundings, except his thighs Goodly, on the other hand, chose to hide his thoughts and backside flattened out when pressed against it. And and feelings behind a screen of questions. 'Closed circuit the rest of his surroundings ... were white. There was little TV? You have cameras on the inside?' more to say of that tunnel between worlds: it was a 'How observant!' Tzonov let his sarcasm drip; he'd glaring white expanse joining up our universe to some seen through the precog's ploy at once. 'Yes, of course. other. It was the Gate. Miniature cameras, trained on the area immediately 206 207 Again Trask examined the visitor, and discovered opposite: there was an air of patience, inevitability, even another anomaly, however small. Alec Kyle's (or Harry of vulnerability about him beyond that of a creature Keogh's?) hair had been brown and plentiful, naturally trapped in an unknown, unknowable environment. wavy. This one's hair was blond and shining, like damp Now that he relaxed a little - his expression changing, straw, with grey streaks to both sides which gave him a eyes opening wider and frown melting away -Trask saw look of intelligence or erudition well in advance of his something else which could only be revenant of Harry: a years. And his hair was long, falling to his shoulders, natural innocence and compassion, the soulfulness of the giving him something of the appearance of a Viking. mind behind the face. So that without being Keogh's Moreover his eyes were of a sapphire blue, where Kyle/ spitting image, still the visitor felt like him. And as that Keogh's had been as brown as his hair. Trask was certain fact dawned, Trask knew that it wasn't so much what that genetically this was Alec Kyle's son, but at the same he'd seen when first he looked at this one, rather what time he seemed to have inherited his - what, spiritual? - he'd experienced inside that made him sure of his father's colours! As for the rest of his features: there identity. Gut feelings on the one hand, supported by could be no denying that this was the son of the Trask's weird talent on the other, which could not be Necroscope. confused or mistaken. This was the Necro-scope's son. So As if the visitor had suddenly heard or sensed . . . why was it, he wondered, that something continued to something, he thrust himself upright until his sandalled bother him? feet flattened to the white 'floor', and looked directly into As for the visitor's clothes: the eye of a scanner; all of which was performed in a He was clad in a fringed jacket with a high collar and dreary slow-motion which must be an effect of the Gate. wide lapels, and in trousers which were tight at the knee A technician adjusted the picture until the whole man was and flared at the calves to fit snug over soft leather boots. revealed, his eyes narrowed and brow furrowed where he The outfit was almost 'wild west' in cut, yet flowing and stood with his gaze slightly elevated into the camera. Gypsyish at the same time, and its material was a finely Trask couldn't gauge his height but suspected he'd be a patterned skin or leather - like alligator hide. Soft, sand- six-footer. He had an athlete's body: broad shoulders, coloured, flexible, it looked comfortable if a little worn narrow waist, powerful arms and legs. His eyes might be and dusty. very slightly slanted, or it could simply be a result of his Then Trask noticed the earring in his left ear: a queer currently suspicious, frowning expression. His nose was twist of yellow metal, only an inch long and presumably straight and seemed small under a broad forehead flanked gold. But if Trask had been frowning before, now the by high cheekbones. Over a square chin which jutted a lines deepened on his brow. He knew the significance of little (though not aggressively, Trask thought), his mouth that odd shape, knew what it was: the Mobius Strip, the was full and tended to slant downwards a fraction to the metaphysical symbol which had been Harry Keogh's left. In others this might suggest a certain cynicism, but passport to another world. It was the final piece in the not in him. Rather the puzzle, which validated all the rest and caused them to click into place. Trask put it to the back of his mind at 208 209 r once, something else to be hidden in the hypnotic abyss worriedly staring at him. 'You .. . may get back to your behind his eyes. work,' he told them, turning on his heel and starting And that, in a nutshell, was the visitor. Overall, there unsteadily back along the gantry. was nothing in his clothing, manner, or appearance in Trask and Goodly looked at each other, then followed general to suggest the haughty aggressive arrogance, on behind. Tzonov paused and waited for them at the physical superiority, and awesome metamorphic arts of bottom of the ramp through the entrance tunnel. As they the Wamphyri. So that despite Trask's other, perhaps came up the steps he said, 'All very clever, but it wasn't ulterior political motives, he knew that his prime purpose part of our deal. I have held to my part.' He was in in being here - the validation of the visitor as a man and control again, but cold as a mid-winter Siberian blizzard. only a man - had been justified. Trask said, 'And we'll hold to ours. But it wasn't part of 'Off!' Tzonov's voice cut into his thoughts, causing the deal to have you in our minds. Did you ever consider Trask to start. As the screens blinked into a grey opacity, simply asking?' he turned to the Russian and answered his gaze ... and Tzonov pursed his lips. 'At times . . . at times I'm was at once aware of its bite! Now the telepath would almost given to believe that my telepathy isn't just a tool. read his or Goodly's mind, if he could. Like the colours Sometimes I feel that I am the tool, and my talent the of a chameleon, his eyes changed until their grey so master. And I have to admit: it's hard to own or be owned diluted itself as to drain them of colour, while yet their by such a talent without using it. If I was presumptuous, pupils seemed to enlarge to magnifying lenses which on then I'm sorry. It's just that it seemed the easiest way, another occasion might look right into Trask's mind. But that's all.' And Trask knew that he was telling the truth. not this time. For as the Russian's gaze fastened on his The Russian saw it in his face, relaxed, nodded and eyes, so something deep in Trask's brain snapped into said: 'Very well, I'm asking. Is he what he seems to be, action and channelled the other's telepathy down an just a man, the son of Harry Keogh? Or is he an imitation empty tunnel. - a spy, decoy, or invader from another world - and Tzonov knew it in a moment without knowing how it something we should destroy without delay?' was done: that Trask was impervious. Or perhaps not 'He's a man,' Trask answered at once, but he was impervious: his mind was accessible but blank! And careful to leave Tzonov's 'just' out of his reply. 'And I Goodly's pale smile told him the same thing, that his believe he's Harry's son, yes.' mind too had been - secured? 'Hypnotism!' the Russian Tzonov sighed. 'I read as much in your minds almost finally grunted, his bottom jaw falling open. And seeing without trying,' he said. 'Yet when I tried Trask's expression, he knew that he'd guessed correctly. Goodly spoke up, saying: That was your mistake, 'You've been hypnotized! If I so much as look at you ... Turkur. We can't be forced. We can offer up the information your minds switch off!' voluntarily, or else be taken by surprise, tricked, He clapped a hand to his forehead and ground his eavesdropped. But face to face ... the moment your teeth, then grew calm in a moment and actually forced a smile, until he became aware of the core's scientists 210 211 F eyes lock on, post-hypnotic commands take over, we Tzonov knew he couldn't lie, and so replied with an shut up shop, and our minds go blank.' Telling him ambiguous: 'Soon.' Then, as Trask and Goodly reached didn't hurt; Tzonov would work it out for himself their door, he looked at them and said, 'Siggi, of course, quickly enough. will find no great difficulty in reading your minds. Her 'Ah!' he said, smiling his thin smile, which fell away talent does not rely on eye to eye contact.' at once. 'But . . . it will be difficult to work together in 'But only if we should relax our guard,' Goodly told circumstances such as these.' He began to turn away. him. 'I mean, if she catches us with our pants down. But Trask said, 'Under your rules it would be Which wouldn't be cricket, now would it?' impossible! Our minds are our own, Turkur.' Tzonov laughed. 'Our Great Cultural Difference! The Russian looked at him. 'But you have the Cricket! The rules of the game! The fact that you have advantage,' he said, an edge of frustration in his voice. 'If them, and we do not!' I lie - if what I say is not the precise truth - you'll know it 'Also that we have "ladies",' Goodly answered, 'while immediately!' you have only "comrades".' And as Tzonov's smile turned Then try not to lie,' Trask answered, starting up the sour, the British espers passed through into their tunnel towards the magmass levels. 'It shouldn't be too adjoining rooms and closed the door on him ... hard. After all, you've been doing all right so far .. .'- Later: the four ate together in Perchorsk's mess hall, On their way back to quarters, Trask said: 'I think it's where a so-called 'executive dining area' had been time you answered a few questions, Turkur. For example: screened off for the use of officers and scientists, to since you are able to look at your visitor any time you separate them from the common soldiers. As the hour want to - face to face, on screen - why haven't you read was late, they were in any case alone. The heating of the his mind? Why did you need me to tell you about him, hall was only just adequate, but Siggi Dam seemed the truth of him?' perfectly comfortable despite that her dress was almost Tzonov shrugged. 'Perhaps you've answered your own Mediterranean, a fact which Trask and Goodly couldn't question. Perhaps he, too, has been hypnotized! Believe help but notice after Tzonov had helped her out of her me I would love to read his mind, but can't! It could be coat. Following which they studiously avoided paying her interference from the sphere's "skin", its event horizon, too much attention. which lies between the visitor and the wall of his steel She wore a short, tight, figure-hugging skirt, in cell. Maybe it's related to the slow-motion effect which combination with a fashionable wide-shouldered bolero you observed when he stood up, I don't know. But waistcoat held together by a single button, over a chiffon whichever, his mind is likewise a blank wall to me, just blouse open to the waist. Her cleavage was all too evident like your own. Perhaps when we bring him through to and the dark stains of her nipples were like patterns on this side things will be different. We must wait and see.' the pale blue chiffon. If it was her intention to distract, it 'That was my next question,' Trask said. 'When will certainly worked; the espers tried not to be too gauche but you bring him through?' found themselves making a point of 212 213 talking face to face with Tzonov, which kept their Trask finished off only a little of his fairly tasteless hypnotic implants primed. And in a little while Trask pudding and Goodly hardly touched his, a spoonful at sensed that Siggi was no longer trying to read them. best. The Russians didn't even make that much effort. But But to be absolutely sure, he smiled at her and said, 'In finally Tzonov yawned and said: 'I'm for bed. Tomorrow a place as unnaturally cold and unfriendly as this, I'm will be a busy day. We should all sleep as best we can. sure your presence must raise the temperature by several Myself, I find it claustrophobic down here. I like to degrees at least!' While this was a genuine compliment, picture myself out in the open, in an orchard counting the his very deliberate afterthought was anything but: God, plums, and sleep comes easier. You might like to try it.' what I wouldn't give to fuck your face! Goodly looked at him, ignored his advice and Then, still smiling, he waited with numbed nerves for concentrated on the one word: Tomorrow?' Behind his her slap - but instead she returned his smile, inclined her grey, sunken features, the precog's mind was likewise head, and said, 'Why, thank you, Ben!' hollow. Perhaps even more than it should be. And his Other conversation was sparse during the meal, which voice felt hollow, too, as he asked, 'Is that when you're like the accommodation wasn't exactly the Ritz. For all letting him come through?' that, Trask suspected that some poor Soviet Citizen's The head of Russian E-Branch yawned again, but just Army cook had made a special effort here. You could cut like the first one it was a lie. Trask shrugged inside and the meat despite its cryptic origin, and instead of the told himself it was simply Tzonov's excuse to be alone dubiously de-bugged bottled 'spring water' to be found in with Siggi. Who could blame him anyway? But then, as most Russian cities these days, the Coca-Cola was fresh, the cook came to take away their dishes, suddenly Trask cool, sparkling. was unaccustomedly sleepy. And he knew in a moment The quality of our food,' Tzonov commented, almost why he hadn't wanted his pudding. disinterestedly (perhaps apologetically?) 'continues to After that . . . it was an effort to get himself and improve with the ecology.' Goodly back to their rooms and onto their beds before the All thanks due to the West, Trask thought, but to dark flooded in. And Goodly never did get an answer to himself. Pointless to further damage the Russian's pride. his question concerning the visitor: about when they'd be The fact was, though, that without the help of Germany, letting him through the Gate into Per-chorsk. It made no France, Great Britain and the USA of course, the body of difference for he'd known the answer anyway, except he'd the USSR would be a vast and ugly mutant thing dying of known it just ten seconds too late. And so had Trask. its sores. As it was, the most dangerous of the reactors Now, falling headlong into the great black hole of had been closed down and mothballed, the worst of the sleep, they both knew it was going to be tonight, within industrial pollution was now under control, Siberian the hour, as soon as they were out of the way. forests and wild life were flourishing once more, and And then they were out of the way ... even the so-called 'Aral Desert' was regaining something of its old water table. Ask Anna Marie English and she'd gladly detail a thousand other small miracles. 214 215 Ben Trask wasn't much of a dreamer. At least he didn't A curl of smoke, but intent, sentient, probing. And as often remember his dreams, for which he was grateful. the aura of the other sensed Trask and settled like a fog The ones that stuck were usually nightmares, which came all about him, so he felt himself brushed by the eddies to him as a result of his job. On occasion, he still of a powerful rushing force, tugged and whirled in the nightmared about Yulian Bodescu, corrupted in his mental currents of some weird cyclone of the mind. It mother's womb and born into a life of necromancy and was a whirlwind, a vortex, and as it drew Trask in, so vampirism. Or he might dream that he was back in the he saw or sensed its composition: numbers! Greek islands, up against Janos Ferenczy, last of an A numbers vortex! It was as if the continuous printout infamous bloodline. Or he might see the Necroscope of some colossal computer had spiralled up into the air again, as he'd seen him that time in the garden of Harry's like a gigantic inverted flypaper, burning away until the Edinburgh home, before he'd fled into Starside through numbers were left to spin on their own. Flying free, they the Perchorsk Gate. And so it can be seen why Trask too burned with an inner fire; they glowed like neon as wasn't much of a one for dreaming. esoteric equations sought to resolve themselves, evolving Once, the Branch had employed its own oneiro-mancer: a or mutating into metaphysical maths. A nodding, cone- man who not only translated other people's dreams but shaped tornado of writhing numbers snatched Trask up used his own to gauge his and others' destinies. He had and hurled him aloft, just one more cypher in a rapidly worked for E-Branch for three years, and then stopped rotating wall of agonized algebraic symbols and dreaming - and a week later died of a brain tumour. Time coruscating calculi. and again, it had been shown how the future resisted the But just as a storm has its calm 'eye' at the centre of tampering of mere men. And by exactly the same degree, the tumult, so the numbers vortex obscured and Ben Trask resisted dreaming. protected its sentient core: another mind, which Trask He would resist it just as stringently now, if he hadn't felt warm against his own as soon as he touched it. been weakened by the drugged food. But as it was he Except it wasn't simply that he felt it, but also that he found himself drawn into the dream and trapped there - felt he knew it! by a voice. But a voice with a difference, with an aura. An 'Who . ..?' he said, dismissing his post-hypnotic mind- aura that reminded Trask of his dreams of Harry Keogh. guard and opening himself to the other's probe. 'What.. At first there was only the velvet darkness of deep .?' sleep, criss-crossed by the flashes of instantly forgotten A friend, came back the answer. Or one who would thoughts or half-formed visions, transient as meteor trails be your friend, if you will have me. in a night sky. But there was nothing really visual about it. And despite that the telepathic voice was warm, Then ... the aura was there like cigarette smoke, curling in uncertain, and even a little afraid, still Trask shuddered Trask's mind, acrid with the touch - or the taint? - of the in his sleep. It was as if someone had walked on his one who'd first drawn and then exhaled it. Or maybe acrid grave - exactly like that - and for the first time in his wasn't the right word: redolent of him, perhaps ... life he fully appreciated the meaning of that old cliche. For this was how it must feel to be dead and have 216 217 someone talk to you! A single word, thought, idea, floated They think we're still out for the count. And as long as to the surface of Trask's mind: they continue to believe it, we can talk.' 'Necroscope!' 'lan!' Trask grasped the other's wrists, stared up into For a moment there was a hushed silence. Then: And is his pale face. 'I was dreaming.' that such a dreadful thing to be? I can feel it in your voice 'Nightmaring, more like!' Goodly retorted. 'Who were that you think so. you calling after?' Even drugged, asleep, Trask knew who he was talking 'You wouldn't believe me if I told you!' Trask struggled to - the only one he could possibly be talking to -so that upright, gently fingered his brow. 'God .. . headache!' before considering or attempting to curb his reply, he 'That mousse, or whatever it was supposed to be.' found himself answering: 'But your father was a dreadful Goodly nodded. 'Or rather, what was in it.' He stepped thing, in the end!' through into his room, ran water, returned with a fizzing Ahhh! You knew my father? My real father? There glass. 'Good old American knowhow.' was hope in the voice, eagerness and excitement, but all 'Eh?' Trask drank. fading away in a moment. And I see that you feared him, 'Alka-Seltzer.' too, just Jike everyone else in this place. 'Ah!' Trask looked at him, focusing a little easier 'In the end we all feared him, yes,' Trask repeated. 'But now. 'So what happened to your precognition?' in the beginning, he was my friend.' 'Nothing, it worked fine.' And you ... can tell me about him? Something of hope 'You knew they'd mickey us?' Trask's jaw fell. had returned. 'But not until it was too late, after the first spoonful.' 'Oh, yes, I know about him,' Trask answered. 'I know a Trask tut-tutted his disgust. lot about him. More than most men. Most living men, 'And your own faultless talent?' Goodly raised an anyway.' Which seemed to say it all. eyebrow. Ahhh! Again that strange, sad sigh. And in another Trask's expression changed, grew rueful. 'Much the moment: We'll talk again. But not now. There are mental- same as yours, I suppose: it came too late.' He sighed. 'I ists here. They watch and listen. I see you have a mind- guessed Tzonov's "tiredness" was a lie, but what the guard. Use it! hell, obviously he wanted to be alone with Siggi! So I The voice faded away, leaving Trask to cry out after it, wasn't seeing or thinking straight. Something was — 'Wait, wait!' But it was useless; the numbers vortex yes, I have to admit it - distracting me. But by the time I snatched him up again and dragged him into its whirling was a couple of mouthfuls into that pudding . ..' wall. Buffeted this way and that in a spiral of mad maths, 'That's when you knew.' Goodly grimaced. 'Because Trask was rocked, shocked, shaken ... by then she was able to relax. We'd taken the poisoned ... Shaken awake! bait. Except . . . well, we only took a little of it. I expect 'Easy, Ben! Easy!' lan Goodly's worried expression the dose was carefully measured; a full portion of that loomed into focus. The precog sat on the edge of Trask's pudding would probably have put us both down for the bed, gripped his arms and continued to caution him. entire night.' 218 219 you know, the Bulgarians were expert "chemists" all of Trask frowned. 'Run that by me again? About Siggi, I thirty, forty years ago. Designer drugs? Old hat to them mean?' and the Opposition. Anyway, I went down fighting it and And Goodly said, That's what she does, and it's why kept fighting it. If I hadn't, my drugged sleep might well she's here. Siggi Dam's no ordinary telepath, Ben. It's have merged into normal sleep. But I knew what had my guess she carries as much mind-smog around with happened and wanted desperately to be awake! I used my her as any of the undead you ever went up against. What mental alarm clock: that's a trick of mine to wake myself makes me think so? Simply that I can't read a damn up at any hour of the day or night. Before going to sleep, I thing of her future. Nothing!' just tell myself when I want to be up. Which is what I did. Trask stroked his chin. 'Mind-smog? Static? She But as I was coming out of it, someone entered the room. produces it?' So I just closed my eyes and mind and lay there. Whoever 'To order. That's my bet, anyway. It throws the talents it was must have been satisfied. After he or they left I of other espers out of kilter. It's why my advance tried to wake you but couldn't, so I took a look around on knowledge went into reverse and your instinctive lie- my own.' detector blew a fuse.' He nodded and managed to look 'You did what?' more mournful yet. 'As if she wasn't a big enough Goodly shrugged. 'Why shouldn't I? We're not prisoners. distraction already. Physically, that is.' And if Tzonov can play dirty tricks, why shouldn't we? Trask got up, crossed to his washbasin and ran cold So I went walkabout.' water, splashed his face with it. 'Certainly it would 'In the Projekt?' explain why she isn't listed,' he grunted. 'A new player 'Here and there.' The precog's face wasn't so much gaunt we know nothing about. Her telepathy warns her when as grim now, and Trask saw things in his eyes that worried another esper is near, and then she hides behind her him. • 'So what did you find?' mind-smog. Turkur Tzonov's secret weapon. We had too 'I saw a lot of stuff you're not going to like, Ben,' the much of an edge, so he shipped Siggi in to blunt us other told him. 'Stuff that you won't like one little bit...' down a bit. I knew there was something I should ask myself the first time I saw her, namely: what the hell's a nice girl like her doing in a dump like this? Keeping Tzonov company? Maybe, but she's no bimbo. Given that she has a mind, there have to be ten thousand better places to be!' Squinting in the room's poor light, he glanced at his wrist-watch. 'You were out for an hour and forty minutes,' Goodly told him. 'You still would be, if I hadn't woken you up. Myself . . . I was out for half an hour.' 'You're resistant?' 'I only tasted that stuff,' again Goodly's grimace. 'But 220 Chinese locators, too - were out of their heads trying to follow his movements ...' Trask paused. 'But why am I Ill telling you this? You were with the Branch and know it as well as I do.' Nathan . .. Kiklu? 'Tell it anyway,' Goodly urged. Trask struggled into his jacket. 'Very well, but on our way.' 'We're going to see Tzonov?' 'Damn right!' Trask growled. 'And to find out what he's up to with his visitor.' And to himself: With my visitor? 'Tell me about it.' Trask sighed his relief as the pounding The one I spoke to in a dream? Or was it j u s t a dream? in his skull receded a little. 'This place is a maze,' Goodly warned. 'How do we 'It's night now up top,' Goodly told him. 'The very know where they are? How will we find them?' dead of night. And down here, except for essential duties, everyone is asleep. Also, we're "guests" as 'Wherever the action is - where they're not sleeping - opposed to interlopers - or we're supposed to be - with that's where we'll find them,' Trask answered. He led the no special orders attaching to us. And anyway they way out into the corridor, which was even dimmer now think, thought, we were out of the picture. So I wasn't and yet more eerie, and headed for the core. 'But you interfered with as I did my rounds. Well, not until I asked me to refresh your memory on Perchorsk, at the descended through the magmass levels to the core. That's time when Harry went through the Gate.' His voice fell to where I was picked up and escorted back here. But a whisper: before then ... 'Well, we were the ones who told Soviet E-Branch that 'Ben, what do we know of this place? I mean, in the Necroscope would probably try it. He'd already used connection with Harry Keogh, the last time he was here?' the Romanian route and so was stuck with this one. The Trask shrugged. 'We had pretty good liaison with the Russians assured us he wouldn't make it; forewarned, they Reds at that time. They were "Reds" then, just waking up would be waiting for him with a lot more firepower than to the fact that they were in it up to their necks. Harry he or anyone - anything - could possibly handle. Since we Keogh had become a vampire: he carried a plague in his couldn't be sure exactly what that signified, we were blood that could run rampant across the face of the Earth. obliged to take their word for it. One thing for sure, And using this thing called the Mobius Continuum, he though: they really believed they could stop him.' could travel instantaneously from one place to another 'Except they didn't,' Goodly took it up. 'He tried to go like you and I go from room to room. He could be, and through on a motorcycle - first through the Mobius was, in the Greek islands, Hong Kong, Nicosia, Detroit, Continuum, then through the Gate - with that poor Macau, and here in Perchorsk, all in the space of an hour. vampirized girl, Penny, riding pillion. He made it but .. . Our locators - Russian and 222 223 the girl was shaken loose on this side. She came down on survivors were out of it before the missiles were actually electrified steel plates under an acid rain. A terrible way fired. But the story they had to tell ... well, it was the to go, even for a vampire.' work of the Necroscope, all right. It had to be him, for Trask nodded. 'Eventually the Russians told us what who else could return Perchorsk's dead to life?' had happened. They had to, for they were scared to death The two had penetrated the upper magmass levels into he'd come back again! After what Harry had done to them an area where neither of them had set foot before. Visible in earlier times - the havoc he'd wreaked with their E- in the distorted matter-melt of walls and floor, weird Branch - they wanted to ingratiate themselves. It could be moulds had been scooped from metal, plastic, and the they were going to need our help ... badly! And so they very rock itself as if by fire or furious acid. Blow-torch told us the whole thing. But they also told us about their scorching and the discoloration of chemical reaction were new "failsafe" system. My God! Talk about Chernobyl! apparent everywhere. 'But on the other hand, who could blame them? They'd Goodly paused, his gaze hardening in the poor light. had more than enough of things coming through that With a nod of his head, he directed Trask's eyes to these Gate. The next time anything stuck its ugly face in here, inarticulate yet vaguely frightening shapes in the they were going to blow its head off and close the Gate magmass. And despite that Trask's last words had been a for good! But it was the way they were going to do it. Two statement of fact as opposed to a question proper, still the nuclear warheads, one timed to explode inside the Gate, precog answered them in his fashion, by taking up the close to the opening into the parallel world of the story again: vampires, and the other set to go off just beyond that The dead woke up, that's what happened. The dead of portal, on Starside itself! It was just typical of Russian Perchorsk in their glass, rock or metal cysts - the thinking at the time: destroy the invader if possible, wreck magmass dead, fused with machinery, tools, whatever his lines of resupply, devastate his home ground. Also, they'd been working with; rotting or mummified semi- with any luck the Gate itself might be destroyed at the mechanical things, who'd been melted and sealed up in same time. the original explosion - broke out! Dead men, whose 'When we heard about it and after we asked our warped composite bodies might just fit the twisted scientists what sort of side effects there might be, all hell shapes of these terrible magmass moulds. And they fired broke loose! What, set off a nuclear device inside a black the missiles into the open Gate!' hole - or a grey one - right here on Earth, right in the Trask nodded, his voice hushed as he answered: earth? Unthinkable! We could be playing with the forces 'According to the Russians, anyway. But it could only that hold the very universe in place! We started have been Harry who gave the orders. He was dying on negotiations ... but too late. Harry had been gone for some Starside - he even gathered us all together to watch him time by then, and it seems he'd been keeping busy on die, that time at E-Branch HQ in London - but his Starside. What happened here in Perchorsk that fateful deadspeak voice bridged the gap from another world to night . . . no one knows for sure. Most of the this place, and called up the dead just one more time in an attempt to close the Gate. That sort of dead, yes ...' 224 225 Trask followed him into . . . a storeroom? The place was He looked again at the magmass moulds, then quickly like a warehouse, with other rooms leading off and looked away. 'Mercifully, our scientists were wrong. stacked steel shelving on every hand. Then Trask saw Whatever the Gate is - whatever it's made of - it was too what the shelves contained, and Goodly said: tough for the Soviet nukes. It seemed to eat them up: no 'E-Branch didn't get much out of Jazz Simmons when repercussions whatsoever. We can't even be sure that- Harry Junior brought him back. Can't say I blame him, they went off. There was no blow-back, nothing. Perhaps not after what Intelligence and the Branch had done to they should have anticipated that; after all, the Gate is a him. We had to send a man out to Zante just to speak to one-way ticket.' him! But he did say that -' Goodly took his arm, turned this way and that, said, Trask cut him off: '— That Chingiz Khuv had been 'We must have missed a turning. Somewhere back there planning an invasion of Starside?' He looked again at the . . . is something you ought to see. And anyway, I don't shelves. 'Yes, he did say that. And now?' think we'll find Tzonov and his visitor along here.' Goodly shrugged and joined him in examining the As they began to retrace their steps, Trask asked: 'So armaments stacked on the shelves, a stockpile of small why did you want to go over all of that again?' and not so small-arms: flamethrowers, grenades, To get it straight in my head,' the other answered. 'I'm automatic rifles, hand guns and ammunition. And: 'What pretty good with the future, but the past sometimes eludes do you think?' he said. me. And anyway, you skipped the most interesting part. 'If you can't destroy the Gate,' Trask answered, 'first I'm talking about when Chingiz Khuv was in charge here, secure and defend it, and then prepare to invade it! Who and sent Jazz Simmons through into Star-side.' knows what you might find on the other side? Something The magmass was behind them now. The tunnel ahead to swing the balance in your favour? A means of looked more than ever like some old London achieving your ambition: to even the score and grow Big underground, with several confusing, branching in the world again? But is this the Russian Premier's passageways. Finally they drew level with a recess on the philosophy . . . or is it just Tzonov's? Is he trying to work left, containing a bulkhead door marked with a radiation this trick on his own, do you think? I know he was lying hazard sign. 'Ah!' Goodly nodded. This is it.' when he said that up until Nathan's arrival his interest in Trask glanced at the warning, looked again and shook this place was purely academic.' his head. 'A barefaced lie to keep out the incurably 'Whichever,' Goodly said, 'I think this visitor from curious, such as you and me,' he said. 'But radiation? It Starside has come through at just the right time. If he would suffice for most people, certainly!' And as Goodly hadn't, we wouldn't have seen all of this .. .' spun the wheel to free the hatch, and pushed it back on 'Which might seem to beg a further question,' Trask squealing hinges: 'What about when Jazz went through?' added. 'Who was it who really wanted us in on this? Goodly stepped into darkness, turned on the lights. Turkur Tzonov, or Premier Gustav Turchin? Were we invited merely on the whim of the one, or on the 226 227 command of The Boss himself so that we'd be in on it down here at all! They'd like to study the visitor their and just as much to blame if it went wrong?' way, as scientists. Not his way, whatever that will prove 'Probably the latter,' Goodly answered, 'and Tzonov to be.' It was the way he said it that caused Trask to has to make the best of it. It would explain the lack of glance at him. security: we were supposed to see everything, and Tzonov 'You said you were picked up at the core,' Trask said. daren't hide that fact. So from the technicians' and 'Did you see anything down there?' scientists' point of view, we appear as free agents. But in 'Enough,' Goodly answered, but darkly. reality Tzonov's keeping us on a leash, only letting us see 'Enough?' what he wants us to see.' 'Enough to make me suspect that our man isn't going 'Until now,' Trask growled. 'Let's get out of here. I to have an easy time of it. I saw them bring him through. don't want to be found in this place, and I don't want His food must have been drugged, too. When they Turkur Tzonov to know we've seen it. . . " opened the door his arm flopped out. He was unconscious. They dragged him through and put him in a cage.' They left the storeroom with no time to spare; a 'What? A cage?' technician, yawning, bespectacled, barely awake, came 'Like a big birdcage, yes.' into view around the curve of the corridor. He must be The two turned down the indicated passage on the going on night shift down in the core. As they drew level right, followed it for fifteen or so paces, then turned right Trask stepped in front of him and said, 'Er, Turkur again and found themselves outside another steel door. Tzonov?' But this time it was guarded. A young soldier leaned 'Uh?' The other looked at them, blinked sleep out of his against the wall with a rifle over his shoulder. When the eyes. 'You looking for Tzonov?' He nodded. 'But not here. espers came into view he stood up and adopted a sloppy Back there, er, fifty steps? Passage on right. Is there. But position of attention, but as Trask approached the door he could be dangerous. The intruder.' stepped in his way. 'No go,' he said. 'Thanks,' Trask smiled. 'This is a big place. We got 'We were invited,' Trask told him, face to face. 'We lost.' have to see Turkur Tzonov.' The other shrugged and blinked again. 'Is no problem.' The soldier frowned, scratched his chin, and said, 'No,' They went their own ways, but as soon as they were but without malice. Goodly had stepped to one side of out of earshot Goodly whispered: 'See what I mean? the uniformed man and now made to pass around him. There don't appear to be any guards in the place, and very But as the soldier moved to intercept him, so the door little of suspicion in respect of our being here. Earlier, opened. Tzonov stepped into view, and the orbits of his down at the core, the scientists were more opposed to eyes were that much deeper, darker. No need to inquire Tzonov's presence than to ours. I think they see him as what he had been doing, or trying to do. He saw them at the intruder! They don't want the military or people of once, but his face showed little or no evidence of surprise. Tzonov's dubious, cloak-and-dagger character 228 229 at that sort of thing, ever since the Bulgarians showed 'Ah! Ben, lan,' he said. 'I was going to send for you, you how. It was a mistake, however, for we'll bring but it seems you've beaten me to it.' charges.' 'I hope you have some answers, Turkur,' Trask told The Russian tut-tutted. 'Come, now! Harmful? On the him, coldly, as the Russian stepped aside and ushered contrary: they were totally harmless! Do you feel any ill them past him into the laboratory beyond the steel door. effects? Of course not. Moreover, by now your bodies 'And I hope they're good ones. Because if they're not ...' are already voiding the drug, and so you could never His voice tailed off as he gazed all about, until his eyes prove it. Here and now, face to face, I accept what you found what he was looking for. say, of course. For there's no way I can lie to you. But In one corner of the large, well-lit room, a tiled, sunken how would that stand up in an international court of law? area like a small swimming pool had been cut from the Ordinary people don't believe in our talents, Ben! So living rock. Beyond it the walls of the man-made cave your threat is meaningless. And in any case, it was done rose sheer out of the basin to a high, roughly hewn for your own safety.' ceiling. The cage Goodly had mentioned stood central in The three paused at the rim of the sunken area, where the tiled depression itself, and there were steps leading the two Englishmen looked their host scornfully in the down to it. Set in the walls of the sunken area, nozzles face, especially Trask. The sharp edge of his talent was pointed inwards towards the cage. As soon as Trask had never keener. He looked, saw, knew that Tzonov had absorbed this last detail, he recognized its function. This told a half-truth. Something of it had been for his and was not and had never been intended as a swimming Goodly's safety, but mainly it had been to keep them out pool. This was an acid bath. of the way. Tzonov wasn't lying, but he wasn't telling the There were two scientists in the room, both of them whole truth either. young, inexperienced, definitely cowed — by Tzonov's 'We don't have to prove it to take action on it,' Goodly presence, Trask correctly assumed. They sat on chairs at spoke up, his face and voice animated for once. 'If courts the rim of the sunken area with millboards, notepa-per, of law are out, there are always other ways. You aren't and pens. As yet they didn't seem to be doing too much the only one with a powerful organization behind you. writing, which Trask understood readily enough. Tzonov There are things which we, too, can do that could never himself had pinpointed the difficulty here: these people be handled by a court of law. If you doubt me, better go were scientists and he was a metaphysician. They didn't and do a little homework on British E-Branch.' even believe what he had been trying to do. They were a There had been a half-smile on Tzonov's face. Now it token force of the small scientific community here, fell away. Til do what I have to do,' he said, 'to protect representatives of their fraternity against the myself and my country from any threat. Whether it parapsychological or 'supernatural' nature of Tzonov's. comes from an alien world or an alien ideology. And I Crossing the floor to the sunken area, Trask told won't let anyone stand in my way. But on this occasion, I Tzonov, 'What you did to us constitutes a serious assault. had you two put out of the way in order to protect You've introduced harmful foreign agencies, drugs, into our bodies. Your lot have always been good 230 231 you. This thing,' he jerked his head to indicate the cage, Tzonov came and stood on Trask's right, looking 'is the unknown! In the past, other things which seemed sideways and down on him. Trask avoided his glance, but harmless have come through into Perchorsk, and brought in any case his hypnotic guard was up and Tzonov death and madness with them. Not only a threat to my couldn't read him. As long as Trask was careful, he could country but to yours, too. Indeed, a threat to the entire think what he liked and know that his thoughts were world.' inviolate. Until Siggi Dam came back on the scene, 'We're not complaining about your patriotism, Turkur,' anyway. Then . .. she and Tzonov might conceivably Trask told him. 'Only about your zeal.' He started down work something out between them. As for right now: the steps into the sunken area. 'And what would Premier Trask could hazard a guess at the reason for her absence. Turchin say, I wonder, if he knew you were up to stuff Tzonov didn't want her mind-smog interfering with what like that? As for what you said about alien ideologies: he'd been doing here. tsk-tsk! Is democracy so alien to you, then? And would 'So,' Trask said, 'you've had him ... how long? An hour Turchin fall into line with your thoughts on that, too, I and a half? And after you woke him up, what then? Did wonder?' you sit here looking at him, trying to get inside his head, Goodly and Tzonov followed him down, the latter talking to him? In how many languages, and with what cautioning: 'Be careful! I know you believe he's just a result? What, nothing? And is that why you decided to man - Harry Keogh's son, but without his father's powers send for us?' - and it seems I have to agree with you. But we still can't Tzonov said, 'We've X-rayed him, and taken blood, be sure. If he's Wamphyri. .. that could well be the very urine, tissue, and other samples. A comprehensive range last thing you discover about him!' There was malice in of tests. So far he's come through all of them. He looks his voice, almost a wish, perhaps a death wish: for Trask normal, human. But I repeat, this is not conclusive proof. and Goodly. In mentioning Premier Turchin, advocate He came from the world beyond the Gate and could be general of Russia's New Democracy, Trask had obviously anything but human. Now, the fact is you know far more touched a raw nerve. about that other world than we do. Your beloved Harry A chair stood opposite the cage, with its backrest told you all about it; well, a great deal about it. That is facing the steel bars. Tzonov's chair, but Trask sat down one of the reasons why you are here: because you might and crossed his arms on the backrest, and rested his chin see and recognize something in him that we would miss. on his arms. And sighing, he peered at the man from the 'As for my telepathy: useless, on this one. Eye to eye, I other side of the Gate. Trask was no telepath; there was meet a whirl, a swirl, a vortex which spins so rapidly that no way he could know for sure what the other was it shines! His mind is impenetrable. I had thought it might thinking, but he guessed anyway. Something of it, at be an effect of his being on the other side of the event least. It was written in the visitor's slumped posture: the horizon, but I was wrong. Now that he's on our side, it's way he sat cross-legged dead centre of the cage, arms by just the same. It seems he's one of those rare individuals his sides, hands curled beside his feet, head down in utter who can't be read.' dejection. 232 233 'Not so rare among Sunside's Travellers,' Trask It was exactly the sort of diversion Trask had been answered. 'Many of them are skilled in physical and looking for. He wasn't a telepath, but someone had spoken mental camouflage. Hunted by vampires, it's been a to him in his dreams. Now, concentrating his mind, he matter of survival, evolution, for them. In our world the thought at the visitor: Who are you? What's your name? Eskimos have an extra layer of fat, to combat the cold. Do you know that you're in danger, that the people in this So the Travellers are resistant to telepathic probes, to place - especially this man - will either find a way to use combat the Wamphyri.' He didn't mention that Harry was you, or keep you imprisoned, or even kill you? the same in the end, after he'd become a vampire. He wasn't hoping for any kind of answer, but: In any case, what he had said was news to Tzonov. The man in the cage didn't move his body an inch, but 'Ah!' the Russian sighed - before his tone hardened. 'But his head lifted a fraction and his deep blue eyes looked couldn't you have mentioned this before? It's hardly a straight into Trask's. And: classic example of cooperation!' Don't.' the answer came back, causing Trask to start in True,' Trask answered, 'but then, over the course of the his chair. I understand all of this, but say nothing, do last few hours the pebbles in our "wall of trust" have nothing! Tzonov's talent is huge! suffered no small amount of subsidence. Indeed, you 'What?' The Russian esper spun on his heel, away could even say that the wall is teetering!' from Goodly, grasped Trask's shoulder and stared at the Tzonov ignored the jibe, began to pace to and fro visitor, whose head was back on his chest. And again he behind Trask where he continued to stare at the visitor in hissed: 'What was that?' In his effort of concentration, his cage. 'So,' the Russian mused, 'this ability of his -this his forehead had creased into a hundred wrinkles. talent? - to deflect my telepathy, is a natural thing. In 'Eh?' Trask looked up at him, his hypnotic shield which case, he will have to learn our language.' firmly back in place. 'What was what?' And Goodly added, 'Or we can learn his. That shouldn't Tzonov released his shoulder, took two paces to the be too hard: Romanian with a smattering of Slavonic, bars and grasped them. 'You!' he spat the word at the Germanic, and true Romany. A good linguist, preferably visitor. 'Did you speak?' He shook the bars until the man an empath, could pick it up in a week. We have just such in the cage looked up. 'On your feet!' Tzonov shouted. a man in London.' 'Speak to me!' 'Oh?' Tzonov paused in his pacing and met Goodly The visitor sat there, looked sad, puzzled. face to face. 'And are we gullible as well as incompetent? Trask stood up and went to Tzonov. 'If he can't Perhaps we should simply give our visitor to you, to take understand you, where's the sense in shouting at him?' back to London with you! And perhaps with your help he Tzonov looked at him, frustration etched in every line could also develop his father's powers, eh? No, Mr of his face. 'You didn't hear him speak?' Goodly, I think I can choose just such an empath from the Trask shook his head. 'Not a word.' members of my own branch.' 'In your mind?' Goodly smiled wryly. 'So much for first name terms,' he said. 234 235 Trask took a pace to the rear and frowned, he hoped kind. Sunside's Travellers are probably highly sensitive convincingly. 'Are you mad? You're the telepath, Turkur, in this respect. It's in the expression, the voice and not me!' eyes. Your eyes can be especially frightening, Turkur. They look under a man's skin, into his mind, his soul.' The Russian breathed deeply, regained control of He smiled and signalled that the caged man should himself. 'Then why do I feel that you're getting more out stand up, and the other slowly got to his feet. There of this than I am? Perhaps it was a mistake to bring you now,' Trask said, 'and maybe we can take it a step here. I think I'll have to talk to a higher authority.' further, play Jane and Tarzan with him.' Placing his 'As you wish.' Trask shrugged. 'But before that, why right palm flat on his chest, he said, Trask. Ben Trask.' don't you let me try to get through to him? I mean here Then, pointing at the other, he let his expression frame a and now - in front of you - all above board and out in the question mark. And: open, as they say?' The last thing he wanted right now 'Nathan,' said the other, hand on chest. 'Nathan Kiklu.' was to be ordered out of the laboratory, even out of 'More than I got out of him in an hour!' Tzonov Perchorsk, leaving the visitor to Tzonov's tender mercies rasped. and methods. Then be quiet,' Trask told him, but in the same Tzonov considered it, calmed down more yet, finally reasoned tone of voice,' and give me a chance to do a said: 'It can do no harm. He is after all my prisoner, and little better.' whatever he tells you he tells me.' He stuck a hand through the bars, and heard the Trask sighed, 'My, how the wall crumbles!' and turned Russian's sharp hiss of apprehension and warning. The back to the visitor. Except this time he didn't dare play visitor also heard it, and his eyes narrowed as his with telepathy; he must simply hope that the man in the expression became suspicious. Trask turned his hand cage was tuned in to all of this. 'Can you hear me?' he palm up, thrust it hard between the bars, offered it inquired in the warmest, calmest voice he could muster. more forcefully. And the other relaxed, reached out and 'Listen, we're your friends. We only want to find out about grasped Trask's wrist as he in turn grasped the visitor's. It you. But how can we if you won't respond?' was the Szgany handshake, as Trask remembered it Nothing. The visitor sat there as before. from Harry Keogh's description of Sunside's nomads. 'Perhaps I was mistaken,' Tzonov quietly commented, The contact did a lot for both men. It told Nathan after a moment's silence. 'But when you were sitting there Kiklu that Trask was his friend, also that he might looking . . . at. . . him ...!' indeed have been his father's. Where else could he have Stiffening his back and neck, the visitor had learned this greeting, if not from a Traveller or someone straightened up a little. He was looking at Trask, and there who knew the customs of Sunside? And to Trask it was something of interest in his eyes and expression in confirmed what he would quite happily - what he general. 'People are like animals,' Trask said in that same might already - have bet his life on: that the visitor was reassuring tone, without taking his eyes from the other's human. Entirely human. It was in the warmth of his face. 'They know when they're up against a friend, an enemy, someone kind or someone ... not so 236 237 touch, the conviction of his friendship, the irrefutable Goodly said, 'Garlic: Knoblauch.' evidence of Trask's talent: that this was the real thing. And Nathan said, 'Kneblasch.' Finally they released each other, stepped back a little. Trask turned to Tzonov. 'So much for your concern And Trask softly said, 'Nathan, can you understand about his humanity, Turkur. This one's no vampire. I'm me? Do you understand anything of what I'm saying?' wearing a silver ring, but he clasped forearms with me. It was nothing short of a subterfuge, a red herring, a And he treats garlic as if it were his national flower or ploy to gain a little time. Trask already knew that the emblem. That's a measure of his respect, which I for one other understood a great deal, not only of his situation understand readily enough.' but also of the political intrigue going on around him. 'Maybe you understand more than you're saying,' the Or if not that, at least he recognized the principal other answered darkly. 'But ... I'm grateful to you. You players and had determined which side to come down have made a start, at least. One which I can, what - on. capitalize? - upon. And now I must ask you to leave.' The other played up to it: he shrugged, tapped himself 'Leave?' Trask stared at him. Perhaps he stared too long on the chest again, and said: 'Nathan?' His face was a and hard, until his suspicious, anxious thoughts were picture of innocence. visible. But in any case, the Russian shook his smooth Trask pointed into the palm of his left hand, and said: dome of a head. 'Hand.' 'No, not Perchorsk, not just yet, anyway. You have Nathan nodded. 'Hanta!' 'German!' Goodly said. 'Or as shown a measure of goodwill in this thing, despite that good as.' Trask crouched down a little and touched his you consider my methods draconian and unfair. And so own foot. 'Fusse?' I'm willing to forget our differences, for the present at Nathan looked blank. 'Bindera?' Goodly said, 'In German, least. I meant only that you should leave this laboratory, legs are die Heine.' Trask reached inside his pocket, go back to your rooms, and get a good night's sleep. brought out something like the kernel of a large nut. He Tomorrow you may continue what you were doing, these held it out to the man in the cage, but Tzonov stepped language lessons. Meanwhile, I'll arrange to have forward to grab his arm. 'What's this?' someone flown in who knows Romanian and the romance The best proof of his humanity that you're ever likely languages in general, probably an empath.' to see,' Trask told him. 'It's a clove of garlic!' Goodly spoke up. 'What about Nathan's rights, Turkur? Nathan was interested. He reached through the bars Or being an "alien", doesn't he have any? Think how and took the clove, held it to his nose and sniffed as if it you're treating him. Why, he can't even lie down in this were some exotic flower. And indeed it might seem to birdcage, not in any comfort! Are you going to keep him hold some rare fragrance for him, such was his here all night? Do you think it will impress him to take expression. Then . . . it was as if memories of old times you into his confidence?' had misted up his eyes as the previous soulful look Tzonov merely glanced at him, then offered an returned. exasperated, irritated shrug. 'Do you two know how aggressive you are? Whenever I try to be flexible, you reply 238 239 'I noticed it,' Goodly nodded. 'Harry's Mobius sigil, with criticism! But as I've tried to explain, these yes! Interesting times ahead, Ben. Interesting times.' measures — this cage and cleansing area - are only Trask was tempted to mention something else: that temporary precautions until we can be sure of him. Even Nathan had spoken to him in his waking and dreaming now we can't relax, not with one hundred per cent hours alike. But spoken to him in his mind, when Trask confidence, until the results of our tests are known. But wasn't even a telepath. He was tempted, but kept it to acting on your reassurances ... yes, I am willing to ease himself. A case of what Goodly didn't know, Goodly up a little. Which is why I require you to leave. You see, wouldn't think about. And in a place like this, what he I intend to move him - right now, tonight - to more wouldn't think about couldn't hurt him ... suitable but nevertheless secure accommodation.' Trask grunted a barely perceptible, 'Huh!' Following it with: 'And you don't want us to see where you're putting him, right?' 'That is part of it,' the Russian answered truthfully. 'But as for the rest: nothing has changed. It's for your own safety! You are my guests here. Think how it would look, how I would feel, if some harm should befall you.' They might have argued the point but Tzonov was through with talking. He called for the soldier on the door, and the British espers were escorted back to their rooms. Left alone, they talked for a little while, but both men were weary now. As Trask readied himself for bed, Goodly stuck his head into the room. 'What about him?' he said. 'What about who?' 'About the visitor, Nathan Kiklu . . . or Nathan Keogh? One thing's certain: this isn't the Harry Junior who we knew. He's much too young, and we know that the Dweller was a vampire when last Harry saw him. But according to David Chung, something of the Necroscope has come back. So what do you think?' 'You saw him, didn't you?' Trask got into bed. 'Chung's right: Kiklu may be his name, but Keogh was his father. He's not the Dweller, no, but he is a son of Harry Keogh. I mean, he has Harry written all over him! Then there's that earring of his. Didn't you notice it?' 240 'I think it most probably is a coincidence,' he answered, 'but best to be sure. What, the son - or a son -of the IV Nathan and Necroscope, Harry Keogh, here in Perchorsk again? An outcast from Starside? Oh really? Or is he something else Siggi entirely? Did he escape here, or was he sent? And if the latter, why? And so it goes. We need answers to all these questions ...' Siggi had been asleep for an hour or two. Her nightgown was of very flimsy stuff: white chiffon, shot While Trask and Goodly prepared for sleep, Turkur through with metallic silver lame. Looking at her, again Tzonov spoke to Siggi Dam in her room. Pacing the floor Tzonov caught himself wishing that he was free tonight. before her where she lay sprawled on her bed, his But no, he intended to supervise his soldiers - his soldiers, attitude was far from romantic; in any case, what had a hand-picked platoon which he had managed to infiltrate passed before was mainly for show; they had been lovers into this place over a period of time - in the removal and some years ago, an affair which terminated when he relocation of their arms cache to a secure, more discreet discovered his rivals - or rather, how many rivals. armoury on a disused magmass level below the core. In Currently when they were brought together by their another hour or so, when only a handful of scientists work, they were still 'lovers', but it was no longer the remained on duty, then he'd be able to make a start. state of being, just the act. And between times he had calls to make; not least to 'Some progress has been made, but not enough,' he told the Kremlin, to report the occurrences of the day, but also her. 'Tomorrow the British will want to see him again, to his own E-Branch HQ on Protze Prospekt, to enlist the and it would not be prudent to stop them. When we have skills of an empath-linguist. These and several other some more of our own people here, that will be time administrative tasks would keep him amply occupied enough. Meanwhile, it can't hurt to go through these through the small hours, and in any case he was tired and tediously slow processes. After that we'll only let Trask felt the need to conserve his energies. In a purely physical talk to our visitor for an hour or so at a time, and always sense Siggi could be very demanding. And there again, he under supervision. Proving Nathan's humanity - and so had other plans for her ... far the results of our tests do appear positive in his favour - It was not usual for Sigrid Dam to read the minds of was only the first step. Discovering why he's here, and her colleagues, but on this occasion she was curious about especially at this time ... that is now our top priority.' Turkur Tzonov's mental state. Normally he would be 'You don't think it's just a coincidence?" Siggi sat up implacably stable, indeed unshakable, but occurrences and stretched, arms above her head, breasts jutting, the over the last week seemed to have unnerved him in platinum flow of her hair highlighting her strong jaw. however small a degree. Siggi was his confidante, it could Looking at her, Tzonov could almost wish he was free even be said his 'right-hand man' in the scheme tonight. 242 243 to be discovered. That and whatever else Tzonov could he'd been hatching for several years now: to usurp the learn from him. The trick would be to ensure that the Soviet Premier and elevate Russia to world domination British espers didn't learn more. It rankled a little that via the untapped resources of an alien world. The timing they were here by order of Gustav Turchin on Tzonov's of the coup was crucial and hinged upon an invasion of own recommendation; but in fact he'd believed they the parallel world of Sunside/Starside. When the time was would be needed. Now that they were no longer ripe Tzonov would make his move: first Premier required he must continue to be their host of sorts, and at Turchin's removal by use of some discreetly ephemeral the same time learn whatever he could from them, poison, by which time Tzonov's seat on the Demokratik especially with regard to their previous knowledge of Politburo would have been secured. Then, with the Sunside/Starside. esoteric resources of E-Branch for backup, he would It was all very delicate, complicated, fraught with propose himself for Premier and almost certainly be pitfalls. But until the visitor had been thoroughly elected. In the interim his soldiers would have invaded the interrogated and dealt with, and British E-Branch were world beyond the Perchorsk Gate, returning via the out of here, and the whole seething cauldron had settled Romanian Gate with first-hand knowledge - and even the down somewhat, Tzonov must tread warily and hold his first fruits? - of whatever was on offer in that unknown, greater plans in abeyance ... primitive, and incredibly dangerous place. Many of these things in Turkur Tzonov's mind were But Tzonov was well aware that he was not the first 'overheard' by Siggi. Since she was already aware of esper to plot political .. . revitalization? And he knew only their theme in general, they made no significant impact. too well the difficulties his predecessors had come up But certain thoughts of his had impacted upon her: in against. The name of one such obstacle had become a particular, his vague but less than gallant reference to curse among the rank and file of Soviet E-Branch: Harry what he would term her promiscuity. Knowing Tzonov's Keogh. But for sixteen years now the man or monster psychological problem - his egocentricity, the fact that it known as the Necroscope had been banished from the bordered on egomania - Siggi was also aware of the face of the Earth, until finally he'd become little more paradox: that he was jealous and possessive beyond all than a myth, a legend, a bad dream. Old fears that one day reasonable bounds. It was the reason he changed he might return - fears shared by British E-Branch no less partners so frequently. Only let one of his women than its Soviet equivalent -had not been realized. Possibly display the slightest awareness of or interest in another the Necroscope was dead; certainly the British thought so. man . . . he would fly into a rage and the affair would Or was it that Keogh had not been able, or simply hadn't be over. But Siggi also knew that if the day should ever desired, to return? dawn when Tzonov came up against a man who was And now this visitor, this Nathan Kiklu. his mental, physical, and political superior all three, A refugee from a vampire world? Or a spy for then he'd be finished. So far that day was a long way monstrous Wamphyri masters on Starside? That remained off, but still his nerves showed ragged edges in the presence of men like Trask and Goodly. They may not 244 245 be his physical equivalent, but mentally they were clear and unmistakable, 'promiscuity is not the word. probably a match for him; it took some of the shine off That would simply mean that you were indiscriminate in his ego. your sexual relations. And I would never think of you as a slut, which for me describes a common person of very Tzonov had stopped pacing and was looking at her. low intelligence, whose body is worthless. No, you've 'Oh? Is there something ... ?' Perhaps it was the look on read me wrong. You are neither indiscriminate nor her face. common, but simply ... unbalanced.' She shook her head, changed her mind and nodded. 'What?' She stood up, faced him, shrugged into her 'Perhaps there is. Turkur, we're agreed that you are the dressing-gown and belted it tightly. leader and I am a mere follower however high in the 'Oh yes,' he insisted. 'It's all in the mind. I've known it ranks, and that in some not too distant future my loyalty for a long time, and I'm sure that you have, too. You're a shall be suitably rewarded. Not a very novel scenario, but nymphomaniac, Siggi. That is how I think of you, still I've gone along with it in every respect; so much so because it's what you are. Men hold this morbid that I'm probably guilty of treason against the state, and fascination for you. Almost all men!' certainly against its Premier.' 'Get out!' she said. All the colour had drained from her He frowned and nodded. 'Both of us, Siggi, and E- face. 'In this instance, rank has no privileges. You're in Branch, and all of our agents and recruits, including my room, and I want you out of it! And I don't ever want certain Generals in the so-called "Citizen's Army". So to see you in it again!' what are you getting at?' 'Of course you don't.' He smiled thinly. 'Until the next 'Only this,' she answered, sitting up straighter. 'If I'm time, when your needs overcome your disgust - of really your Second-in-Command, which is the next best yourself!' thing to being your partner, then I wish you'd stop 'Out!' she said again, and made to stride to the door. thinking of me as a slut!' He caught her wrist, brought her to a halt. And his anger 'Do I?' He looked surprised. was as great as her own. 'You think of me as . . . promiscuous,' she answered, 'to 'Siggi, listen. This is nothing new but how it always say the very least. You can't even look at me without was between us. It's the reason our relationship failed. remembering your "rivals". But they weren't rivals, But there are relationships and relationships. And there merely lovers, and briefly at that. If I were to dwell upon must be discipline in our working relationship! What you all of your conquests in a similar light, what would that said a moment ago is true: in the eyes of all the dupes of make you? A lech, a rake, a bloated and diseased roue? this great country of ours and its so-called "demokratik Being male, perhaps it would please you to be so system", we would be traitors. If our ties are weakened considered. But I'm a woman and it doesn't please me!' by sexual conflict, that's as it may be, but it must not be His pale eyebrows came together as his frown grew allowed to interfere with our purpose, our goal overall.' more intense, curiosity turning to anger. 'My dear,' he She was calmer now. 'What, and am I a fool as well said, his words very precise so as to make their meaning 246 247 as a slut? Of course we must continue to work together -or In her anger, Siggi was no less human than any other fall together. But right now I would prefer you out of woman or man, and it was only after Tzonov had gone here. I have to dress. And as for your thoughts about my that she knew what she should have said to him: that the personal life, in future you can keep them to yourself.' level of sexual activity in any normally healthy body is That's where you have the advantage,' he told her. only as high or low as opportunity will allow. How 'Your thoughts are guarded - hidden in mind-smog - many affairs die stillborn because their would-be whereas you can read mine like the pages of an open authors are afraid to voice their feelings? But with a book!' telepath ... ? When Siggi met a man who wanted her, she It was true, she knew. Telepathy was a two-edged knew it at once, as surely as if he had whispered in her sword. If one was curious to look into another mind, one ear! Why, sometimes it was as if he had shouted! And if must accept its contents. Tzonov could no more he should have that special something that attracted her - disassociate himself from his thoughts than from his that indefinable something, that sex appeal, which is limbs. They were a part of him. different for all women, thereby allowing for And now he was thinking about this Nathan, and the relationships between all types - what then? Knowing instructions which he had previously given to her. He what was available, was she supposed to ignore it? was about to issue a caution, one which she could read in But by the same token, and once the first flush of his mind (even as he himself had acknowledged) 'like the sexual excitement had burned itself out, she would also pages of an open book'. know the rest of her lover's thoughts. She knew too well 'Don't worry,' she told him, however grudgingly, as she the luscious, juicy, shivering lust that could turn to a opened the door to let him out. Til go to Nathan and talk weird disgust just as soon as a man had fired himself to him, see if I can worm my way past this freakish talent into her; knew also that the moment she read such a of his. We seem to be two of a type, this primitive and I. thing in a lover's mind - the first time he thought of her Perhaps our shields can be made to cancel each other out. in such terms, in her entirety, as a darkly quaking, If it's at all possible, I'll get into his mind for you.' coarse-haired, sucking hole - then that the affair was 'Good!' Tzonov looked at Siggi one last time, luring her over. Even if the thought was fleeting, transient, still it eyes with his own. A wasted effort; her static got in the signalled the end, always. But while it was painful, way; he could only read her when she desired to be read. Siggi had learned to accept it; she knew that another And at the same time he'd left himself wide open. There lover would come along soon enough and the first flush was another instruction, a final order in his mind. . .but he be reborn. was wise enough to leave it unspoken. It concerned Siggi Ordinary lovers were fortunate, in a way. Because and Nathan: what she must not do when she was with him. their minds were their own and inviolable — because Closing the door in his face, she thought: Fuck you! they could not see the truth, the various disaffections But she made sure she kept the thought to herself .. . and dissatisfactions gradually growing up between them - they tended to pretend it was always good and 248 249 alien world of Sunside/Starside, and scientific tests to unchanging, that their sex together would always be like the contrary, who could say what alien things might or the first time. It was a ploy that even worked for some of might not lurk in his blood? His mind was of far greater them, and their love lasted a lifetime. But only for a few, concern than his body. But on the other hand ... perhaps for even the blind are not deaf and dumb, too. Turkur should be made to understand how Siggi And yet Siggi was not without hope. Somewhere, despised this sort of interference. She was her own sometime, she might meet a man like herself, whose person - or anyone else's to whom she might care to give mind was unfathomable, a secret thing known only to herself. himself. And there was an old saying that was never far Siggi dressed slowly and thoughtfully, and was careful from her thoughts: what the eye doesn't see, the mind to avoid any sort of uniformed or military appearance. won't grieve. Two choices then: find a lover who would She didn't want to seem aloof, or in any sense official, be satisfied quite simply to Jove her, in every sense of the ascetic, clinical. She was the scented glove - or as the word, or one with the skill (and the compassion?) to keep British might have it, the 'soft sell' - as opposed to the his baser thoughts to himself. Ah! - and of course the will clenched fist, and must appear more girl than woman, to keep from reading her own! more nurse than inquisitor. He wasn't an innocent, this And so . . . a sex maniac? No. But a realist, an man from the Gate; she had known that much from the opportunist, a desperate searcher? And was Tzonov first time she saw him on the viewscreens. But he was far himself any different, any better? Siggi knew that he was too young, wild - and primitive, yes, as the place he'd not, but that unlike herself he had not yet come to terms come from - to be too well-versed in the ways and wiles with it. Nor could he while his ego intruded. He had of women. Especially the sophisticated women of Earth. called her a nymphomaniac because his ego demanded it. So thought Sigrid Dam, who could make mistakes 'Obviously' there was a flaw in her psychological make- just like any other woman. And of any other world ... up, for any 'normal' woman couldn't possibly find time for other men, not while Turkur Tzonov was around. What When she had finished dressing, she examined the result were other men anyway, compared to him? Yet in Siggi's in her room's less than adequate mirror. Her choice of case ... her taste in all other matters was impeccable. earth colours, despite that she knew they didn't Wherefore this was not a matter of taste but addiction. compliment her own, had been deliberate; she didn't Hence his use of that word which describes a woman want to seem too bright or - alien? - to the visitor. addicted to men . .. According to what little the Soviet E-Branch knew of Such were the warped convolutions of Tzonov's thinking Sunside/Starside, it was a dull world, dark, dreary; when facing a problem that challenged his ego. And such which the pale browns and yellows of Nathan's clothes was Siggi's assessment of him as she prepared to might seem to corroborate. A Gypsy world, peopled by interrogate, in her way, this visitor, this Nathan Kiklu. nomadic tribes on one side of barrier mountains, and As for Tzonov's unspoken 'instruction', that she Wamphyri on the other. conduct her interrogation on a purely impersonal level: she had never intended anything else. Nathan was from the 250 251 All such knowledge, what little there was of it, had and eyes ... perhaps she could be a woman like the ones been supplied by the British in that brief period of esper he had known. And Siggi wondered how many he'd gJasnost following Harry Keogh's vampiric meta- known, and how well. But in any case he was little more morphism and his escape to Starside, and Siggi well than a boy, and she must become his sister, a sympathetic understood Tzonov's eagerness to learn more about the contact in this strange new world. world beyond the Gate and its inhabitants. Not only to go Stepping into the corridor, Siggi found her escort one up on what the British already knew, but more as an waiting for her. The young, tired-looking soldier snapped important equation in his preparations. Of course, for this erect, saluted, and shouldered his rifle. It was well past was the world he intended to conquer, to make it a new midnight and she could appreciate his weariness. Apart satellite of Mother Russia - unless it conquered first. And from essential duties, the Perchorsk complex was now as in that respect, she understood something of Tzonov's quiet and suffocating as a tomb. Like a vast mausoleum, fears, too. For he had shown her the Perchorsk archive yes. And for a moment, Siggi could even feel the tapes of previous ... visitors. mountain pressing down on her. She shuddered, put those pictures firmly from her On their way to Nathan's cell, she asked her escort: 'Do mind, and examined herself one last time: you have orders?' Statuesque, she could well have stepped off the cover of 'Only to escort you, Madame, and let you into the one of the West's glossy magazines, but not out of the prisoner's room. And to wait outside, of course, until you fashion section. Not unless Gypsies were back in fashion! have finished and call for me.' Well, that was a contrivance and she mustn't complain. That could be most of the night.' This wasn't going to be a night out in Paris, or an evening He shrugged and made no answer. of Californian Chardonnay, sexual innuendo, and She thought about Nathan. She'd been there when they telepathic surveillance at the American embassy in fed him drugged food and brought him through the Gate. Moscow, after all. The son - or a son - of a man they'd known as the But Romany, yes: the clothes at least, if not her looks. Necroscope. Siggi had read the Keogh files and found An ill-matched combination? Maybe. But on the other their story ... what, fantastic? No, much more than that. hand, the visitor didn't look much like a Gypsy either. He The story of a man who could move himself bodily, could even be Danish, a fellow countryman! Well, once instantaneously, to any spot on Earth? A tele-port, yes, upon a time. Only his clothes looked Romany. And and the first of his kind. Also, he'd talked to the dead, and perhaps his single golden earring. But even that didn't even had the power to call them up from their graves! signify a great deal. They were back in fashion for men And at the end he'd been a vampire, indeed Wamphyri! here in this world, too. That was the last time anyone saw him, when he'd She wore a tasselled jacket of light-brown suede over a disappeared into the Gate riding an American motorcycle. leaf-green blouse fastened with a jade clasp, and a flared But it wasn't the first time Keogh had been to Star-side. cotton skirt patterned with autumn leaves. If she were a Four years earlier, British E-Branch had sent him little less tall, brown-skinned, with black hair 252 253 there on a mission: to find an agent who'd been lost while shook her head and closed the door behind her, leaving spying on Perchorsk. That had been ... oh, twenty or so the soldier outside. He at once turned the key in the lock, years ago? And now this Nathan had come through the rapped on the hatch and opened it. 'Madame, will you be Gate, just twenty or so years old. Keogh's son? It seemed all right?' reasonable. But it didn't seem to be a case of like father, She looked at his concerned face framed in a small like son. For if he'd inherited his father's powers, there'd metal square, and said, 'I'm sure that with you out there, be no holding him here. Or anywhere else, for that matter! all will be well. Now then, close the hatch and please Turkur Tzonov considered his arrival coincidental to his don't bother us again.' However reluctantly, he obeyed plans. But obviously he had to be sure. That in a nutshell her, and as the observation window closed she turned to was Siggi's mission: find out why he'd come. Was it of his face Nathan. He was on his feet, nervous as a cat and own volition or someone else's? If the latter, what was the blinking his startling blue eyes. nature of his masters, how many of them were there, and She kept smiling, motioned him to sit down, then gave when would they be following on behind? Finally, if his the cell a cursory inspection. A bed, chair, washbasin and answers were satisfactory - if there was no immediate chamber pot - so much for accommodation. It might as danger or any requirement for extraordinary action - then well be Lubianka in the time of Khrushchev! Then she it would be time to drain him of his knowledge concerning looked at Nathan. Sunside/Starside preparatory to Tzonov's invasion ... He was a six-footer, athletic if a little awkward in his They had reached the door to Nathan's room, more movements, shy-looking and yet... not innocent. It was properly his cell. In the old days, doors in Perchorsk had what she'd noticed in him before, when she'd seen him on all been equipped with locking devices. Following a the viewscreens. His eyes, despite being soulful, were number of catastrophic accidents and incidents, when too also knowing. She crossed to the chair, took it to where many lives were lost behind locked doors, most of them he sat on his bed, and sat facing him only a few feet away. had been replaced by easier mechanisms. This cell was 'I'm Siggi,' she said, low-voiced. one of the few remaining rooms with a door that locked. It He frowned. 'Siggi?' was also fitted with a small metal panel, like a window, She nodded and touched her breast. 'Siggi, yes.' with a catch on the outside. He sighed, as if to say, What, that again? Then The soldier had a key to let Siggi in, but as he produced answered drily, sourly: 'Nathan. Nathan Kiklu.' it she said, 'Here, let me.' He held his rifle at the ready as 'All right,' she said, smiling tightly now, 'I shall try not she turned the key in the lock and opened the door. Inside to be so boring.' And then, without warning, she turned the room, Nathan half-reclined on his bed, clothed and up her full telepathic power and said: Nathan, I know fully awake. He saw Siggi and the soldier, and his eyes your mind is shielded. Turkur Tzonov couldn't get narrowed to stare at the gun in the letter's capable hands. through to you, and so your shield must be very strong. But Siggi only smiled at him, Well, my mind is similar, but with me it's deliberate. Now, whether your talent is natural or a 254 255 contrivance is not my concern at this point, but if you're him with their flamethrower and pulped his legs with not willing to help me I won't be able to help you. their automatic rifles, until he'd been brought to his knees At the first unspoken word he had started where he sat, ... but only figuratively. For even when he was down, still a small jerk of his shoulders and a tic in the corner of his they hadn't quelled his spirit. eye. That was all; followed immediately by a vain attempt The film rolled again on the screen of Siggi's mind: to hide his surprise behind a blank expression. But while He'd kneeled there mewling on the gantry in front of the Siggi had not been expecting his reaction, still she'd seen glaring white hell of the Gate, a crippled man for all to it and knew what it must mean. Why, his mind was like a see, grey as a corpse and splashed with blood, his own wall of bulletproof glass made slippery with a film of oil! and that of those he'd slaughtered. Yet even as it had Spinning to create its own centrifugal force and deflect dawned on him that this must be the end, so the thing the thoughts of others, nothing could penetrate or even inside him had denied it! stick to it. But it didn't stop Nathan from looking out He had looked like a man, but now ... through it. So much for innocence! His mouth yawned open - it opened, opened, opened - oh, impossibly wide! A forked tongue, scarlet, lashed in Just why Siggi had tried it she didn't know - a hunch, the cave of his throat. His jaws elongated visibly, making that's all - but it had worked. Now, sighing her wonder a sound like tearing sailcloth; fleshy lips rolled back in a and sitting back a little from Nathan, she was suddenly froth of saliva until they split and spurted blood, aware of what she was dealing with here: the fact that he revealing crimson gums and jagged, dripping teeth. The was from an alien world, and the son of Harry Keogh, and entire mouth resembled nothing so much as the pulped, capable of telepathic reception, all in one. But then ... rabidly yawning muzzle of a wolf. But the rest of the face what other powers did he have? And was he as human as had been as bad if not worse! Tzonov thought he was? The squat nose had broadened out more yet, developing You're an alien/ She couldn't help the thought. Why, convoluted ridges like the snout of a bat, with moist, you could even be Wamphyri! He could be, yes, hiding quivering nostrils in dark, wrinkled leather. The ears, behind this shy, seemingly innocuous facade. He just previously flat to the head, had sprouted coarse hair, could be! growing upward and outward to form red-veined, Suddenly Siggi was very cold and trembling. She felt nervously mobile shapes like fleshy conches. And in this the short hairs stiffening at the back of her neck; respect, too, the effect was batlike. Or maybe demoniac. gooseflesh, not only on her arms, legs and spine but For hell was written in those features and limned in the creeping in her mind, too! This man - this thing? -could be nightmare expression of that face: a visage which was Wamphyri! part bat, part wolf, and all horror! And still it wasn't over. She remembered archive film of a Wamphyri soldier Before, the eyes had been small, piggish and deep- who had come through the Gate. Perchorsk's defenders, sunken. Now they were grown to gorged leeches, Russian soldiers on our side of the portal, had blistered 256 257 bulging crimson in their sockets. And the teeth ... they I gave new meaning to nightmare. For growing and curving up through the lacerated ribbons of the creature's gums, those bone knives had so torn his mouth that it filled with his own blood.' ment, I think, for a crime I never committed and don't As for the rest of his body, that had remained even understand. Do you think I want to be here, in the mercifully manlike; but through all of his metamorphosis hell-lands beyond the Starside Gate? I want to be back on his ravaged trunk and legs had taken on a dull leaden Sunside with my young wife ... gleam, and his entire form had vibrated with an incredible These were the jumbled thoughts he aimed at Siggi, palsy. while behind them she sensed his pain, frustration, and Then they'd burned him up, hosed him down with bewilderment. And most of all his loneliness. Suddenly chemical fire, melted him to smoke, steam and stench. It Nathan's hand on her shoulder was warm and very had been over. It was all over, dissolving like a shadow in human; she felt his humanity coming right through her sunlight from the screen of Siggi's mind ... except for the clothing, and she wasn't cold any more. one thing which she remembered above all others: that at She breathed deeply, controlled herself, and said: I've first, he'd looked just like a man! come here to question you. You come from a terrible Frozen to her chair. She couldn't move, think, speak. place. There's a man who wants to be sure of you. He And Nathan was standing up, reaching for her. He wants to know your purpose here. He thinks - touched her, held her shoulder, squeezed - but gently! '- I know what the mentalist Turkur Tzonov thinks,' And now she saw what his whirling shield was composed Nathan broke in. 'He's (ambitious?) and thinks a great of: numbers. Nathan's secret mind was hidden behind an many things, some of which are correct, some incorrect, enormous mutating equation! Maths, astonishing maths . . . and others which are simply wrong. He's a (schemer?), a in a man from a largely innumerate world? All of this would-be warlord, hungry for power. He would examine was too much; she didn't know enough about him, didn't me, (subvert?) me to his cause if possible, put me to use in know anything! She should call out for the soldier in the his schemes. And if he can't, then he'll kill me! Through corridor, but there was a lump in her throat. me, using my (knowledge?) of the world beyond the Gate, His oh-so-gentle touch ... she made to shrink back from he would invade and (conquer?), not only the Wamphyri it, but her back was against the back of the steel chair. of Starside but also Sunside's Szgany, its Travellers! But I And in any case, a moment after he touched her the am Szgany, and I can promise you this: making war with numbers vortex had disintegrated into a thousand the Travellers would be a grave error of (judgement?). shattered fractions, revealing Nathan's thoughts. And as for going against the Wamphyri - what, knowing I'm NOT Wamphyri, he said, emphatically. The as little of them as you do? - that would be a sure sign of Wamphyri are my enemies. I'm here because of them, not insanity!' as their agent. This is some kind of unjust punish- From the moment she heard his first spoken words, Siggi had scarcely been able to credit Nathan's fluency in Russian, her own adopted language. And when he'd been uncertain of the words, there he'd filled in by thinking them! Finally she did believe and her mouth fell open. Then: 258 259 you any harm, none of you. All I want right now is to get 'Why have you chosen to remain silent?' she breathed. 'I back to my own world, to what was my home before the mean, you can speak our tongue! You understand ... Wamphyri returned.' Then his face and voice hardened. everything!' Her words were so nai've as to sound stupid 'But if or when Tzonov invades Sunside, then I shall be in her own ears. his enemy! As for my silence: it took time to watch, He shrugged, but not negligently. 'Our - tongues? -are listen, learn. Time to study a new tongue, in not dissimilar. And anyway, you are a clever mental-ist in (combination?) with the minds that think it.' your own right. Don't you have a knack with tongues?' As he let go of her, backed off a short pace and sat She did, it was true, but not like this! down on his bed, Siggi found herself fascinated anew. He read her answer in her mind, and explained. That's Entirely fascinated. Nathan was like no man she'd ever because you've come to rely too heavily on your known; of course he was, for he came from a universe mentalism - as a tool of your trade.' His voice was colder which ran parallel to the one we know. But there was as he went on, 'Why trouble yourself with learning a more than that to it, a lot more than the fascination of man's tongue, mere words, when it's so much easier to unknown horizons, just waiting to be opened in the steal his thoughts? Isn't that why you've come here now, depths of his mind. More even than the physical to this terrible buried cell, to steal my thoughts for Turkur attraction of his young male body, his warmth, the way Tzonov?' his eyes spoke soulfully of indefinable yearnings, a past Siggi felt the colour rising to her face under Nathan's shadowed under the arching wings of nightmare, and an steady scrutiny, and said, 'We've all . . . underestimated equally uncertain future. you.' And immediately she wondered: Why am I tongue- His shield of numbers was down. Siggi could go in but tied? Why does every word I say to him sound so stupid? no longer wanted to, not uninvited, and not until he What? Am I actually the little sister I was going to desired it. Whatever his terms, they would be more than pretend to be? It would be a clever excuse for the warmth acceptable to her. He didn't need his telepathy to read it in she was starting to feel, except Siggi knew that it wasn't her eyes. the warmth of a sister! And as that realization dawned, so 'We'll be . . . friends?' he said, offering her a first wan she closed the shutters of her mind and let its mental smile. 'Despite Turkur Tzonov?' vapours drift out, obscuring her thoughts. But no need, 'We are friends,' she answered, and sighed as if a great for Nathan had stopped reading them. As good as his weight had been lifted from her shoulders. 'And to hell word, he was no mind-spy and certainly no voyeur. Why with Turkur Tzonov! Except -' she frowned. '-He will should he be, when he could simply talk to her? expect something out of all this.' All of this taking a single second, before he told her: Nathan nodded. 'Of course. He'll expect answers, and 'No, you have overestimated me! Surely you must see - I you shall supply them . . . " He was suddenly thoughtful, know you can - that I'm not your enemy? What? Only one withdrawn, subdued. 'But I won't tell you - him - man, and unarmed? How could I be? I don't mean everything, not just yet. No, he won't get all of it until ... until he brings his machine here.' 260 261 Siggi felt her heart sinking like a stone. 'His machine?' Her voice was a whisper. She knew about such a V Out of machine, banned now throughout the civilized world, but: Turkur hasn't spoken to me about... about that!' Perchorsk 'Nor has he said anything to me,' Nathan answered. 'But he has thought it...' Siggi had asked him: 'What will you tell me about yourself?' And Nathan had answered, 'Most of it, but I shall leave out anything which would help Tzonov. It could be argued that anything I tell you will be of some help to him, I know, but in fact there's a great deal that might frighten him off! He would be a fool to ignore the menace of the Wamphyri.' 'You don't know Turkur, despite what you've read in his mind,' she'd told him then. 'And you haven't seen - couldn't possibly imagine - the power of the weapons he commands. How long will it take you to tell me . . . everything?' Again Nathan's expressive shrug. 'How long is a lifetime? I can only tell it as it happened.' 'It would be shorter if I could see it, and it wouldn't exhaust you.' 'In my mind?' He had understood her meaning. 'I suppose so. But still it will take time: most of the night, maybe.' She'd thought about it, then gone to the door and rapped on the hatch until it opened. 'Give me your key,' she'd told the young soldier. 'Then go to your bed. Your duty is over.' 'My orders are clear,' he'd answered. 'I am to -' 'But I've just changed your orders! This is the way 263 to cover their fully clothed bodies. But when Nathan we planned it, Turkur Tzonov and I. So don't interfere had reacted to her proximity, she'd known it at once, with the plans of your superiors. As you can see, the from which time on their thoughts had gradually turned prisoner is completely harmless. Also, I've a gun hidden away from his story to much more intimate things. And on my person.' (These things were lies, but she went on then Siggi had known for sure why she sent the guard anyway): 'In the morning, I shall return the key to Turkur away. personally. And that's enough of explanations. Now give When her curious hand had discovered him hot and me the key and I'll continue with my work, and you can pounding, Nathan had closed his mind, warning her: go and get a good night's sleep.' 'But if I love you, it will be Misha . . . " Of course, for 'Madame, I -' only four or five Earth-days ago he'd been with his 'Or perhaps you'd prefer to explain your disobedience young Gypsy wife on Sunside. to Tzonov himself, right now, tonight? Maybe you'd like to 'Not if you love me with your body, not your mind." go and wake him up, so that he can validate what I say?' And she too had called up her mind-smog to obscure her At which the soldier had handed over the key, saluted thoughts. and excused himself. 'Even so, still you'll know it. Just as you know it now.' Siggi's actions had been almost automatic; she knew 'But I won't see her face in your mind.' And what the why she'd sent him away but would never have admitted eye can't see, the mind won't grieve. Til imagine it's me it, consciously or otherwise, not even to herself. She was you're pleasuring. And in a purely physical sense it will preparing the way, securing the ground, that was all; she be. But you have a need, Nathan, which you can relieve didn't want anyone outside the door, on the other side of in me.' that window. It wasn't so much that she wanted Nathan, 'And your need?' not yet, but if the night was going to be as long as he She had taken his hand, guided it to her hardened thought it was ... nipples. 'My need is to satisfy the need in you. This could well be the only chance we'll ever get. And it That had been a little less than three and a half hours might be all I'm able to do for you, ever.' ago, and now the two were asleep . . . in each other's 'But you do have your own need?' arms. 'I want you, yes.' How it had happened, neither of them would ever be 'Because I'm different? Or because you've been sure. But as night stretched out and Perchorsk's energy ordered to have me?' There had been a certain bitterness requirements were reduced, so the room's temperature in his voice, but he'd stroked her breasts in spite of it. had fallen by several degrees. Together with their physical Siggi could hardly be expected to know that she wouldn't inactivity, this hadn't helped matters; soon they had felt be the first woman who had come - or been gift-wrapped the cold and eventually (in order to share their body heat, and sent - to Nathan. certainly) they'd sat together on Nathan's bed. Finally it 'Because you are different, probably,' she'd smiled had seemed only natural that Siggi should recline in his arms, and then she'd drawn a blanket up 264 265 sadly. 'But "ordered"? To love you? On the contrary, I've house of an old friend. Then ... she had wanted to give been told not to!' him something more than her body, because it might be And she had sensed his understanding, and knew that her only chance to give him anything, ever. Taking her he too was his own man. 'I'm ... forbidden?' jade clasp, she'd placed it in a pocket of his jacket. And Turkur likes to own things,' she had told him. 'Including finally, lulled by the steady beat of his heart, in a little people. And if he can't own something, still he'll try to while she, too, had slept... ... And slept - deny its . . . its use, to others. He would like to own both of us.' - Until Turkur Tzonov woke them up! 'And this will help set you free?' Her fingertips had Finished with his work, Tzonov had caught up on a felt like small flames, burning where they brushed. couple of hours' lost sleep until something - some dream Again her wry smile. 'Hardly that, for I'm in too deep. or other - had brought him awake. Siggi's room was only No, I can't be free. But inside I'll be like you: my own a few doors from his own; out of curiosity (or perhaps person.' for some other reason), he'd looked in . . . and the rest They'd been mainly free of their clothing by then, and had seemed obvious. What? She was still working? Right when Siggi rolled onto him her breasts were soft, scented through the night? Ah, but there's work and there's work! in his face. Her woman's juices had prepared the way, And now, coming here: and slipping into her was so easy it came almost as a 'Where's the guard?' His voice was a snarl, his eyes surprise. But as she'd tightened herself to control him, huge and furious as he dragged her from the bed. His slow him, take charge, then Nathan had seen how expert automatic pistol was trained on Nathan. she was. And then, too, he'd known that she wasn't and Confused by sleep, Siggi tried to think. What time was never could be Misha. it? She glanced at her watch, which was all she was The first time had been quick, for all her control. But wearing! A little after 4:30 a.m. In another hour or so the second was slower, deeper, more knowing. It was as Perchorsk would be waking up. But Tzonov was already if he reached for her heart, while she in turn tried to awake, fully awake. swallow him whole. Then, when all too soon it was over 'I asked you -' He shook her. and this man from a weird world fell asleep in Siggi's 'I heard you!' She shouted. 'I. . . I sent him away.' arms and body, she could have cried. For at the last she'd Tzonov growled low in his throat and nodded. 'Yes, glimpsed herself in his mind, and seen how she glowed yes of course you did!' there. Not the dark, sweating, sucking thing she'd come to 'Out there in the corridor, he was a . . . a distraction. I expect - perhaps especially this time -but a haven, a couldn't work.' harbour, almost a holy place. 'Work?' Tzonov looked Siggi up and down, sneering at She could have cried because ... because he might be her nakedness. 'You couldn't ... work? Ha!' He drew back the one! Oh, it was too early to know, but he might be. his hand and slapped her, hard, a backhander that sent Except he couldn't be, not ever, because of Misha. her sprawling. And so Nathan had slept in Siggi's arms as at the 266 267 Nathan was awake now, starting up from the bed. His r face was white as chalk, hands reaching. Tzonov turned his gun on him and snarled through clenched teeth: 'Come on, show me how you Travellers fight for your the precision of his movements, at the last moment the sluts. Give me a reason to blow your guts all over the Russian stepped to the right, grasped Nathan's left wrist, room!' twisted and leaned back. In mid-flight but descending, Nathan held back, trembling, cold sweat marbling his Nathan found himself flipped forward in an uncontrolled brow. His eyes were rapt on the Russian's ugly blued- somersault. And before releasing him, Tzonov used his steel pistol, which held him at bay. But if Tzonov had own body as a pivot and centre of gravity, to add his been unarmed ... weight to his victim's impetus. ... Just this minute risen from sleep and still confused, Nathan hit the vinyl-tiled floor, bounced, rolled, and for the first time Nathan's mind was unguarded, wide slammed full-length into the metal wall - and lay still. open to Turkur Tzonov. Eye-to-eye contact: the Russian The 'fight' was over. Tzonov crossed to him, went to one read Nathan's angry thoughts and glanced down at the knee and checked his pulse. Then he grunted and looked gun in his hand. at Siggi where she was silently cursing and pulling the 'What, this?' In control again, but barely, he knew how last of her clothes on. Glaring back at him, she said: close he had come to using it. 'Is this what's stopping 'Well, and have you killed him?' you? This and my threat? Oh no, my young friend; I want He shook his bullet head. 'No. I will kill him, you alive and kicking! For now, anyway...' eventually! But for now he's just winded, dizzy, feeling sick Their contact worked in two directions. Once more ...' Nathan saw a monstrous machine in Tzonov's mind - a 'You're the sick one!' She headed for the open door. mechanical vampire, feeding, with himself as its victim! But Tzonov was there first, thrusting her out into the The thing ate his brain with electrical fire, and left his corridor so hard that she collided with the opposite wall. skull an empty shell. But Nathan wasn't alone, for this Then, while she clung there, he took out a duplicate key time Siggi saw it too. Then Tzonov blinked and the and secured the door. Siggi saw the key in his hand and picture was gone, and his mind seemed sheathed in ice. clamped her mind tight shut, obscuring its thoughts He applied the safety-catch on his gun, flipped back the behind her uniquely misty screen. left-hand drape of his jacket and drove the weapon home Fuck you! she thought again. in its underarm holster. 'Very well,' he said, 'let's see what She hadn't planned it this way (had she?), but Tzonov you've got if we dispense with —' had forced the issue. And what he intended doing to But Nathan was already moving - and Siggi was Nathan ... well, it just couldn't be allowed. Siggi told shouting at him, 'Nathan, don't!' Too late. herself that that was the real reason why, while Tzonov As Nathan came flying from the bed, Tzonov seemed had been dealing with Nathan and she'd been so to back off a pace. But coldly efficient, even robotic in hurriedly, breathlessly dressing, she'd left her key on the rim of Nathan's washbasin. It wasn't just the worm turning, the need to take revenge on this grotesque egomaniac bastard and all his cruelties. No, it was a 268 269 human act, of a kind Turkur Tzonov would never eye. In fact she was hiding both of them, making sure understand. that Tzonov couldn't see past the double barrier of dark lenses and mind-smog. 'Who has ... escaped, did you For she knew now that it wasn't Nathan who was the say? Nathan!' enemy, the alien here. Not by any means ... 'Of course, Nathan! Who else?' He caught her shoulders, forced her to face him - and saw the dark Something a little more than two and a half hours later, blue bruise under the gold rim of her glasses. His Siggi was in her bed. Her exhaustion was mostly expression changed at once. 'What? Glasses? Something feigned, but not her trembling as she lay there wondering wrong with ... your eyes?' how Tzonov would react to his prisoner's escape. It was 'No, with my eye!' Siggi hissed. 'My left eye, where unavoidable, something which was bound to erupt at you struck me! Is your memory so short, then?' She any moment now; in fact she was surprised it was snatched away the glasses - but only for a moment. taking so long, unless - 'Ah!' He looked staggered. 'But I didn't mean to . . . I - Was it possible that Nathan had been in such a bad mean ... did I strike you so hard?' way that he'd just stayed there unconscious on the floor? She covered her eyes, conjured even deeper banks of Perhaps he'd staggered to his bed and collapsed there, fog. 'It doesn't matter, not any more. And it isn't and so failed to find the key where she'd left it. important. But Nathan, escaped? How?' But even as that thought occurred: Then ... she let her jaw fall, caused her hand to fly to Hurried footsteps in the corridor, a muted curse, and a her mouth. The key!' (In time of need, Siggi could be a moment later a fist hammering on the door. Then very good actress.) Tzonov's voice demanding that she wake up. Siggi took 'Key?' Tzonov tightened his grip on her shoulders and her time, made sure she looked dishevelled, hoped that frowned. 'No, the door was locked. And I had returned her make-up had given her black eye a little extra my key to the key cabinet. Do you mean the duplicate? shine, and that the smoked glasses she wore didn't hide But I'd given that to your guard, with orders that...' its bruised lower orbit. And belting her dressing-gown, She tore herself loose, ran to where her clothes of the finally she opened the door. previous night were hanging, frantically searched the Tzonov was alone. At least that was a mercy. She jacket pockets. 'I dressed so hurriedly,' she gasped as he wasn't about to be arrested. No, that was a stupid followed after her and stood waiting close by, with his thought: how could she have feared that he would dare fists clenched and the skin over his jaw tight as a to charge her with anything? She knew too much about drumhead. 'If you hadn't acted like a jealous, egotistical him, and anyway the era of dawn arrests and summary fool...!' executions was over ... in the rest of the world at least. 'You had the key?' Tzonov couldn't believe it, and a But this was Perchorsk, and Tzonov had the power moment later neither could she - as he laughed and here. sJapped his thigh! 'But I thought ... I thought ...!' 'Siggi.' His voice was harsh, rasping. 'He's escaped!' 'What?' She turned her face away, as if hiding her 270 271 Amazingly, his expression was one of relief, and 'On the other hand, his escape can't keep. Well, let's suddenly Siggi knew exactly what he'd thought: that see: he's been loose for some two and a half hours, Nathan had his father's powers. That he'd teleported out presumably. But a cell is one thing and the complex is of his locked room! another entirely. There's always a guard on the outer 'Why are you laughing?' She continued to act it out. doors. And no way out except through those doors. So 'At me? Of course I had the key. How else was I to let there's every chance he's still in the place.' myself out of his cell? But while you were busy ... 'Where would he go?' She was off the hook and throwing your weight around .. .' She hurled her jacket to could afford to relax a little. 'He has no friends here.' the floor, stamped on it and burst into tears. False tears, Tzonov looked at her sharply. 'The British?' but enough to fool Tzonov. She was only a weak She acted up to it. 'Yes! He could speak to them.' woman, after all. His ego was quite safe. And for the 'Huh!' Tzonov snorted. 'Well, he could in a fashion, same reason she knew now that he never would have yes.' believed that she could give the key to Nathan. But now 'No,' she said, shaking her head. 'Better than that. that she was on fairly safe ground again: He's a telepath!' She would have had to tell him 'Since then ... why, I've been in such a state that ... that eventually, before he found out for himself. So why not I haven't even thought about that bloody key!' now? Now Tzonov had someone to blame, chastise, and 'What?' again his hands tightened on her shoulders. 'Siggi, you're 'It's true. He spoke to me that way, and he's good at a sick little idiot. You sought to seduce him, yet even it. I would have told you before, if you'd let me before now you're not sure that he didn't seduce you. You're throwing me in here! It's why - it's how - I knew he assuming you lost the key - but he could well have taken wanted me.' And before Tzonov could fly into another it from you! I should have known better than to let you rage she continued, 'Why, Nathan even told me about be alone with him.' what he saw in your mind, Turkur: a machine, and how Again she stamped her foot, tore herself free and you planned to use it on him - which is something you turned her face away. 'No, I'm not sick! Whatever I did never told me ...' With her last few words, Siggi had was for you, us, our country. You wanted information, even dared to let a disapproving tone creep into her and I got it. Everything I could, anyway. And whatever it voice. took.' He avoided her glance. 'I would use it, as a last 'Ah?' She had Tzonov's attention, if only for the resort, yes.' moment. 'He told you things? A lot? Good! But ... why 'And leave him brain dead? A vegetable?' didn't you tell me this before?' 'And leave us with his knowledge, everything!' 'What?' She glared at him. 'And did you give me even 'OnJy as a last resort? You did say that you'd kill half a chance?' him.' Tzonov knew that he hadn't. 'Perhaps not. But in any Tzonov was tired of this. 'Get dressed, and quickly. case it will have to keep.' He was fully in control again. Meet me in the control room.' 'Where are you going?' She followed him to the door. 272 273 To check the security of this damned place. Then to messenger to them with regard to the alien escapee.) And talk to Trask, see if he knows anything about all of this - finally he had spoken to the two-man security guard at and how much. If it's nothing, all well and good. And the main entrance, one at his post inside the massive after that, we'll just have to make sure that those two are doors, the other outside. Their reports corresponded the very last to know anything! Now get dressed. I fancy precisely: between midnight and 7:00 a.m. no one had we're going to be busy . ..' either departed from or entered into the complex . . . at least, no unauthorized persons had done so. Tzonov was right: from then on he, at least, was busy. But three supply vehicles had gone out about an hour While Siggi dressed, he organized search parties to ago: two heading east for the mainly derelict barracks work their way through the various levels of the complex; and military airport at Beresovo, and the third to meet a each room and laboratory, every nook and cranny, from train at Ukhta in the west... the Gate itself to the reception area. Then, as the search commenced, he spoke to and commended the efforts of When Siggi met Tzonov in the control room, he was the prowler-guard who had checked Nathan's cell and looking sour. Tossing her a parka, he told her: 'Put it on. found something suspicious in the way he lay there so The weather isn't too good, and we're going out.' motionless in his bed. Fetching the key from the control 'Where to?' She pulled on the parka and took snow room, the guard had found Nathan's pillows tucked under goggles from one of its pockets to replace her tinted the blanket in a manner to resemble the human figure. But glasses. the door had been locked, so last night's guard must still 'I was hoping you could tell me,' Tzonov growled, be in possession of the duplicate key. Without checking leading the way from the control room to the entrance that last detail, the prowler-guard had then reported the bay. 'Let's face it, you were with him long enough! Don't mystery to Tzonov, but with some small trepidation. you have any clues? Any idea at all where he might be There could be a simple explanation, after all. What if the heading?' Outside the open doors, a driver was ticking prisoner had been moved? over the engine of his half-track vehicle, turning the grey Tzonov's admiration was boundless. But then -- He sent morning atmosphere blue with shimmering diesel fumes. for Siggi's guard from the previous night, and threatened It was starting to snow. and dressed the man down almost to the point of nervous She shook her head. 'Are you sure he's gone out? In collapse. Following which, when he'd cooled down a this weather, and so far north? Even a trapper or one of little, he had despatched a man to check on Trask and the local lumberjacks would find it hard going on foot.' Goodly: were they up and about yet? What was their 'I've got teams of men searching every level, the entire itinerary for the day, etcetera - his way of finding out their complex,' Tzonov answered. 'The first reports are already physical and mental condition and perhaps discovering if in. Not a trace of him, and I don't think there's going to they knew anything, and how much they knew. (But be one. No, he has to be out here. I think he stowed away never a mention from his on a supply truck.' Siggi's throat was dry; her heart was hammering and 274 275 back and so must try to hide, fit in with the people she must control it, also her breathing. But was it really around him, merge into our society. Or with any other true? Was Nathan off and running? She hoped so; but if society that he can reach. That's the danger, Siggi. And so, she had been the instrument of his release! Turkur as you're surely aware, borders and check posts don't must be right: she was a madwoman! God, but she must amount to much these days. People come and go as they watch her thoughts and actions carefully now! 'A supply will.' truck? Surely the guards would have searched it?' 'And we can't simply let him do that?' (She wished Tzonov snorted, his breath pluming where he climbed they could.) 'We can't just let him go, and forget him?' up beside the driver and helped Siggi up alongside. Now Tzonov's glance was suspicious. 'Have you lost 'There were three trucks,' he answered. Two for Bere- your wits completely? Are you so easily besotted? He is sovo, one for Ukhta. They left before the escape was most probably the son of Harry Keogh! The British will discovered. As for a search: What? And security around find him if we don't. And they'll discover and bring on here as slack as hell? Even our own people have been whatever powers lie latent within him, for their own bored to tears - but no more! Siggi, if we don't find this use! I mean, think about it. Can we afford for our alien, we're in real trouble.' enemies to be in control of another Necroscope? Can we 'But why? And why do you continue to refer to him as afford that he might lead some British expedition back an alien? Nathan's as human as you or I, a human mind into his own world ahead of our plans? And just at a in a human ... body. He's no plague-bearer. And anyway, time when our country, under our intellectual and political we will find him. Of course we will. To him, this is the guidance - and funded by the riches of a brand new alien world, and we're the aliens. Where can he go? Who world — is ready to reassert itself in world affairs? No, will give him shelter?' Even saying these things, asking of course we can't simply forget him.' these questions, she prayed that she was wrong. For her Siggi had known about Nathan's 'choices', of course, own sake as much as Nathan's. and even knew which one he had made, but she wouldn't Tzonov glanced at her as the half-track revved up in a tell Tzonov. Anything else the Russian wanted to know, cloud of diesel exhaust gasses and started up the pass but not that. And in any case, Nathan hadn't told her along the western flank of the ravine. 'He has only two everything, for which she was glad. What the eye can't choices. If he came as a spy, he's now seen as much as he see, the mind won't grieve. needs to see - of Perchorsk, at least - and must try to get So why was Tzonov heading west? Or was it just back to his own world. If he is the great telepath you instinct? For it would seem that if he was right and believe him to be, he must know by now that there's a Nathan had escaped in one of three trucks, then the second Gate, and its location. Heading for it, he'll fugitive was likely to be heading east. Two out of three continue to gather information for his Wamphyri would seem the better odds. But in fact Tzonov had masters.' He paused, and then went on: probably guessed correctly. If Nathan had used his That's one scenario. But if he's an outcast or runaway, telepathy to read the destinations of those vehicles in the an "illegal immigrant", as it were, then he can't go minds of their drivers, he would have stowed away 276 277 climbed up through this pass an hour and twenty minutes in the one heading for Ukhta. Ukhta, Moscow, Kiev and ago.' He looked up at the wide, jagged canyon of light Romania, yes, and a cold and lonely two thousand miles overhead, the firs growing dark on the slopes. 'He's got a journey between, before reaching the underground river good start, our alien.' that fed the once-blue Danube, the Dunarea, on its way to 'What will you do to him?' She had to speak up, the Black Sea. Of course, because for Nathan there was almost shout as the driver dropped a gear to tackle a no other choice but that he head for the Romanian Gate, steep hairpin. Even so, her tone of voice had been his one route back to Sunside/Starside and Misha, the unmistakable. girl he'd left there in peril of her very life, or death, or Tzonov's gaze was penetrating, but she kept it out. undeath . .. 'Oh, yes,' he said, nodding thoughtfully. 'But this one And now it was time that Siggi told something of these really got to you, didn't he, Siggi?' And before she could things, too, to Tzonov. It couldn't hurt, not now that he answer: 'Perhaps you'd better tell me all about him, and was on the right track anyway and might soon recapture about his world. His alien world first, I think.' the fugitive. But as Siggi prepared herself to relate At least it would keep her mind busy, off other things. Nathan's story: Things she really didn't dare think about. And as the The trucks are equipped with radios,' Tzonov mused to clatter of the engine and the clanking of linked tracks on himself, gloomily. 'Here in this bloody wilderness, they the frozen metalled surface of the road died down a little, need them. The drivers probably won't see another human she started to tell it. being all along their routes, unless you would describe 'Sunside and Starside,' she said. The two halves of a the local peasants as human beings! Out of the pass, it's world split down the middle by barrier mountains. two hundred and fifty miles to Ukhta, and forest - and Sunside is home to nomadic tribes, Gypsies, travelling snow - all the way. They'll see a broken-down cart or folk, except they stopped travelling some twenty years two, a tractor, the smoke of a logging camp. But if they ago after Harry Keogh and his Earth-born son, called were to break down, and then a storm came up ... That's The Dweller, destroyed the Wamphyri Lords of Starside. why they need the radios.' That's as much as Nathan knew about it; he wasn't even Siggi looked at him. 'You've contacted them, from Per- born then. But when he was a child of four a handful of chorsk?' vampires returned to Starside. He doesn't know how or He shook his head. 'Siggi, this place is the arse-hole of where from. the world! Nothing works here. Contacted them? From 'Again they were destroyed, this time by "fires of hell" the ravine, the complex? That's a laugh. Have you seen that came roaring out of the hell-lands Gate! The other the radio room? My God ... talk about antiques! Also, end of the Perchorsk Gate, Turkur. That's what there's this weird interference, and the snow doesn't help Travellers and the Wamphyri alike call that white- much. The operator got through partially, to the lead glowing, half-buried portal out on the Starside plain: the truck heading for Beresovo. Enough that the driver was hell-lands Gate. Because their legends say it's the gate to able to clear himself, then stop and check the other hell. And the hellfire that spewed out of it almost vehicle. Which leaves only one: the one that 278 279 seventeen years ago? One of Viktor Luchov's Tokarev and belt-up, then climbed aboard the wide leather saddle missiles? It had to be. A nuclear hell, yes, that was in front of her and fixed his own belt. The half-track will spawned right here in Perchorsk. That was the end of the wait here for us. If we're not back by midday, the driver Wamphyri, or so it seemed. And Nathan grew up on will go back down and take a meal, then return. We have Sunside. fuel for two hundred miles, which is about right for a 'About the Travellers -' return trip to Kozhva. If we're low I can refuel there. '- Wait!' Tzonov stopped her. 'Let's see to this first. Cross-country, it's only half the distance the truck will And you can help.' have to cover. With luck we'll get into Kozhva half an They were at the top, the apex of the saddle which hour to an hour ahead of our quarry. Meanwhile they'll be formed the Perchorsk Pass. Below them, the ravine was trying to contact the driver by radio. Are you ready? Then misty in Urals daylight shaded grey from the steady fall we'll get underway and you can continue with your story - of large, soft snowflakes. The cloud ceiling was very or rather, with his story.' nearly total, where only a stray beam of sunlight found its The snowcat's engine was quiet and very efficient; its way through on the far south-eastern horizon. They were skis cut the snow with a low hiss, like the outriggers of a lucky; even a moderate wind could easily turn this into a trimaran slicing water, where it sped along the narrow blizzard. white verge of the road down toward the foothills. When The driver had brought his vehicle to a clattering halt; they were out of the mountains proper, Tzonov would he assisted them in turning back the tarpaulin on the back turn off the road and head northwest for Kozhva through of the half-track, and manhandling a Norwegian-built the forests, along the many miles of ruled-line logging snowcat down the ramp of the extended tailgate. tracks. The wraparound windshield gave excellent 'We're going cross-country,' Tzonov explained. 'Even protection; Siggi was able to continue Nathan's story with snow-chains a truck is limited to twenty-five miles without shouting. per hour on roads such as these. And no snowploughs The Travellers have very little of science as we know before Kozhva. Also, if my judgement of Perchorsk's it,' she took up her description of the people of the world drivers in general is correct, this one will be stopping beyond the Gate. 'And what they do have is rudimentary, every hour or so for cheese and biscuits, black coffee sufficient only to their needs. But like our own Gypsies from his thermos, and a sip of vodka. And that's not all, they're good at making signs, marking forest trails, for I'm reliably informed that on this run they normally leaving cryptic messages for others who may follow after. take a break in Kozhva - to chat with the village girls and They might have had the beginnings of a technology at post letters! Slack, as I believe I may have hinted some time in their history, but the advent of the previously.' His sarcasm was biting. 'Damn everything! Wamphyri put paid to that. Any scientific advances they Even in this threatening weather I would have preferred might have made have been defeated by the constant need to use the jet-copter, but it isn't back from Moscow.' to keep moving. Survival is their priority, not science. He started up the snowcat and helped Siggi mount Now they're five hundred to a thousand years behind us - in some ways.' 280 281 And before he could question what Siggi had told him r so far, she continued: 'So . . . no physics as such, but metaphysics? There seems to be a little of the Wamphyri in all of them. They're not vampires, not even remotely, 'Huh/' Tzonov grunted. 'A "taint" of the Wamphyri, but there are degrees of what we might term ... what, do you suppose? Or something he got from his father?' "tainted blood"? So that what the Wamphyri have in large Despite that Tzonov wasn't able to see her, Siggi measure, certain Travellers have inherited down the shook her head. 'Nathan knows nothing about that. Or centuries but to a lesser degree. rather, he knew nothing about it, not for certain, until he 'Occasionally a "mentalist" or telepath will show up read it in Trask's mind. As far as he was concerned his among them. Or one of them could be a precog like our father was Szgany, a Traveller called Hzak Kiklu, who Mr Goodly, with fleeting visions of the future. Thus, just was fatally wounded by a Wamphyri weapon before like Earth's Romany, seers, stargazers and palmists are Nathan was born. He did have certain suspicions, though, not uncommon among them. It makes sense that in a which our various thoughts have confirmed. But it does world dominated by very real night fears, superstition seem to be a pure coincidence that he is the one who has should be so rife. But there again - and as you and I and come through the Gate.' all the world's E-Branches are surely aware - 'And how did that come about?' parapsychology is not superstition. And neither are the 'It seems to have been his punishment for something, Wamphyri! some crime which he couldn't quite specify. But a crime There are degrees of vampire, of which the Wamphyri against the Wamphyri! And so he was cast out of his is/are the ultimate form. But in all their shapes and forms own world into hell - into the hell-lands Gate - from they can only exist on Starside, away from the sunlight. which no one ever returned.' From there they raid on Sunside during its long nights, 'Well, that's true enough,' Tzonov answered. 'Except taking ... food, and captives, back across the barrier range for the other Gate in Romania, it's a one-way system. So ... into the shadows of the mountains before ... before the tell me more about the Wamphyri. Why do you hesitate?' sunrise ...' Because you can't see in my mind what I saw in his. Here Siggi lapsed into a reflective silence, causing Nor will you ever, because I'm not going to Jet you into Tzonov to inquire: 'Well?' my mind again. And if you could see what Nathan 'Um?' She gave herself a shake, which was more a showed me, then you wouldn't want to see it! But out shudder. 'Oh, yes! Well, Nathan told me a great deal loud she only said, 'Because it's gruesome.' about the Wamphyri. And also that you wovild be a fool to Tell me anyway.' ignore his warning: which is that only a lunatic would 'Very well ...' She decided not to elaborate, and after a attempt to invade Wamphyri territory. He knows our moment: plans, do you see? Plucked from your mind while you The contagious bite of the vampire is rarely fatal; on were trying to read his!' the contrary, for after the - what, transfusion? - the victim's blood mutates and his longevity is assured. Or it would be if he were left to develop to his full. But as a fledgling vampire he's now a thrall, in thrall to 283 282 whichever monster occasioned the change in him. And of r course, once a man is taken by the plague he can't stay on Sunside but must make his way to the safety of Starside and the aerie of his master. works. Nathan himself doesn't know. I can only tell you 'In Starside, as a thrall, his fate could be one of many, that a symbiont egg is the alkahest or catalyst which will none of them pleasant. His flesh, blood, even his bones transmute a man into a monster, which will in fact make could be required for the "provisioning" of the aerie. him Wamphyri!' Drained of all life-sustaining fluids and truly dead, his She paused to let Tzonov concentrate on controlling the body could be dried out, ground down, and mixed with snowcat. There were scattered rifts in the cloud ceiling coarse grains as an ingedient of the meal which the now. The sky had brightened; it had stopped snowing; the Wamphyri Lords feed to their flyers, warriors, and other light was much better. They were down into the foothills creatures. and Tzonov was turning off the road onto a vast 'On the other hand he might find himself cocooned, snowslope that swept on for a further fifteen miles or stored intact, and later changed by the metamorphic skills more to the dark-canopied forests and so-called 'pioneer' of his Lord into just such a flyer or warrior - or part of logging camps. But the Russian's thoughts were bitter, one! A creature like the thing which came through the less than patriotic as he scanned the white desolation Gate that time, and destroyed a pair of heavily armed, ahead: highly sophisticated Soviet aircraft before the Americans We've been pioneering this region for close on a shot it out of their airspace. Oh, yes, the Wamphyri can hundred years now! This should be our Yukon, our work such ... what, miracles? Or if not miracles, horrors Canada, our Norway or Sweden. Old-style Communism certainly. For human flesh is like clay to them ... was to blame, but in the last quarter century we've learned 'But let's suppose that our specimen thrall is the right the lessons of history. Or rather, I have learned them! But stuff. Ah, but then his prospects could be very different! in the past I was only the student, and from now on I must Kept as a true thrall, he might be trained, given the rank be the teacher! of lieutenant, injected with more of his master's evil. And Tzonov's thoughts were so vehement, so determined, in time - with fifty, a hundred, or five hundred years of that despite Siggi's shielded mind she picked them up. longevity guaranteed — why, such a one might even She 'heard' his thoughts and maybe even felt something of aspire to become Wamphyri in his own right! his megalomania. Then, shivering a little - perhaps from This could occur in several ways. He could inherit his the cold, too - she shrouded her mind again. master's "egg" - a weird reproductory seed or self- Taking a sweeping downhill course designed to slice contained organism, produced in the leechlike body of the the snowfield in a mighty diagonal to the south-west, vampire Lord's symbiont - or he might even generate his Tzonov wound up the throttle and let the snowcat skim own egg from scratch. Don't ask me how the system the drifted snow like a surfer on the swell of a timeless wave. The miles flew by in a hypnotic hiss of skis; the snowcat paralleled an icy, black-pulsing river like a vein in the dead white flesh of the land; soon they were into the woods. And in a clearing beside a pyramid of logs, there 285 284 'No,' his voice was deep, dark, guttural now, 'don't look Tzonov brought his machine to a halt and stepped down at me with those goggles on. Take them off.' That would to stretch his legs. Siggi dismounted, too, and lit a be the same as taking her clothes off, or much worse. For cigarette. Tzonov, who didn't smoke, cautioned her. 'Is with Nathan fresh in Siggi's mind, Tzonov would see that an American brand? Huh! On the one hand we're everything they'd done together. He actually wanted to admonished to clean up our act country-wide, to see them together! The bastard wanted to watch Nathan depollute and let the world breathe, and on the other fuck her - to know who had fucked who - wanted to be we're encouraged to ruin our lungs! Now tell me, what sure they weren't both fucking him! good is a healthy land without a healthy people? Well, Siggi stepped back a pace in the silence and the one day in the not-too-distant future, all such shit will be solitude of the woods, and shook her head. 'I don't want banned! Mark my words.' A mood was on him. His you in my mind any more, Turkur. Not ever. There are frustrations were starting to spill over. things in there that are mine alone, private. Oh, we're still Another Vice' of mine that Mr Perfect has never in league, far too deeply to pull out and go our own ways, approved op. Siggi thought, but kept it to herself. While but from this point on it has to be business pure and out loud: 'I only smoke one or two a day,' she said, 'as I simple. We have to be partners all the way, and no more require them, to soothe my nerves. We came down the Mr Big and Miss Little.' snowslopes in something of a hurry.' His face changed. His jaw tightened and his eyes were 'Speed has the opposite effect on me,' he growled. 'It's like mirrors reflecting her mind. But in reality they only a stimulant. It's as good for me as sex is for you.' His reflected her snow goggles, and the swirling mental fog words were harsh, grating, deliberately hurtful. behind them. Then . . . he very slowly and very She still wasn't off the hook. Well, to hell with it! She deliberately reached up and removed her goggles, and the tossed her head, looked away as he took out a flask and first thing he saw was her bruise and the flaring anger in sipped brandy. She glimpsed the flask in the corner of her her eyes ... eye as Tzonov proffered it, but shook her head. And then, . .. And the next thing he felt was Siggi's gun in his quite suddenly, she felt his menace anew and stopped ribs! wondering why she was out here, why he'd wanted her to Then, taking back her goggles from his momentarily accompany him. She knew it was so that he could keep frozen fingers, she told him, 'And that's something else, an eye on her, in more senses than one. No, she wasn't off Turkur: you must be sure never to hit me again. If you do, the hook by a long shot, not yet. And: then believe me I'll strike back. Perhaps with this -' she 'What is it?' she said, still looking away from him. aimed her small but spiteful automatic right into his 'Look at me,' he said. She did, and saw his eyes: huge, snarling teeth, '- or if not with this, then with whatever glassy, staring as if to cut into her flesh. If speed really else I can lay my hands on. But be sure I will strike back!' did work on the Russian like a stimulant, he was still She put the goggles back on and continued to face pretty high on it. She saw the bulge in his pants, Tzonov down, until gradually he came to terms with it. sluggishly mobile there ... 287 286 He had to, for right now there was nothing - not a thing - that he could do about it. But after they had both calmed down a little, and as they mounted the snowcat again, VI Off and Siggi was nauseated to catch a last whiff of the Russian's Running mind. And it was just exactly like that: like a bad smell, a mental stench. For a moment she thought she saw a picture forming in the slime of his mind. A picture of a machine - of the machine - the gleaming metal vampire which Nathan had feared. And all of its siphons were sucking on the brain of Twice they crossed the winding road to Kozhva. On the some poor, shuddering victim. first occasion there were faint impressions under the fresh Except this time its victim wasn't Nathan ... snow, but on the next the heavy tyre tracks were black against the white where rubber had stripped packed snow right down to an ice-sheathed surface and only a few grey flakes had speckled the glassy tarmac. Tzonov had an out of date map (but then, he told himself resignedly, almost everything in the greatly diminished USS was out of date these days) which he stopped briefly to look at. And grunting his satisfaction with their progress at least, he at once set off again. 'We'll be in Kozhva in about forty minutes,' he informed Siggi over his shoulder. 'From this point on I could just as easily stick with the tracks and catch the truck on the road. But if we take one more shortcut to the village, we should be there in time to get a bite to eat and something hot to drink while we're waiting for the truck to show up. Meanwhile . . . I think we should put our differences behind us. Why don't you finish what you were telling me?' Siggi made it as brief as possible. But in any case, she could only tell Tzonov what she herself had been told or shown. She knew that Nathan hadn't revealed everything, not with complete candour, because certain scenes from his history had been either very obviously contrived or else deliberately obscured. For example, 289 he'd shown Siggi only a glimpse of his mother and the Despite that he couldn't see her, Siggi shrugged. 'If so, other people he'd grown up with, and done little more it's Nathan's ambiguity, Turkur, not mine. Perhaps there than mention the childhood sweetheart who had become were things he wanted to keep to himself. Is that so his wife. strange? Don't we all have little secrets which we would Also, he had made a number of brief references to a prefer to keep private?' It was going to be a sore point race of near-alien, aboriginal desert dwellers with whom with her for a long time to come. he seemed to have spent a deal of time, but such was his Tzonov answered with a suspicious grunt, and said: reticence with regard to their society that the few 'Somehow I can't help thinking that there are far too pictures which Siggi had managed to retain were many "little secrets" which this Nathan would like to hopelessly confused and without resolution. Other areas keep to himself. But I shall discover them soon enough.' were likewise blank, especially with regard to the Szgany In her own secret mind Siggi thought: You could be in their settled period, and the communities in which right, of course. But first you'll have to catch him ... they'd dwelled prior to the return of the Wamphyri. As for the rest of it, there wasn't much to tell. She couldn't They followed a logging trail right into Little Kozhva's possibly relive it for Tzonov, as Nathan had done for her. main street. Big Kozhva was three miles further on, and 'Nathan grew up on Sunside,' she began. 'He knew a this was a logging camp of the same name which girl there, Misha, and they had plans. But when he was employed sawyers, lumberjacks, and other workers from eighteen the Wamphyri came back yet again. His tribe the town. The road passed right through the centre of was attacked and scattered, and his girl taken as a thrall. camp, and according to the people on the street the truck So he thought, anyway. He took to wandering, became a from Perchorsk wasn't in yet. true Traveller, spent years in the wilderness moving Tzonov put distance between the snowcat and a giant from tribe to tribe. Until he, too, was taken by the sawmill whose noise was deafening, and stopped outside Wamphyri. a general store issuing food, coffee smells, and a blast of 'His vampire Lord was fascinated by Nathan's light warm air from a roaring log fire in the stone-built skin and colours, which are rare among Sunside's fireplace. An area had been set aside for eating; the coffee Szgany. And so he was kept as a sort of pet, and never and 'dogs' were of American blends and manufacture, of vampirized. Eventually he escaped and made his way course. A handful of customers looked up from their late back to Sunside. There . . . he discovered his girl, alive breakfasts or early lunches as Tzonov ordered coffee, and well! They were married. But the Wamphyri pursued eggs, fried potatoes and onions. him. When he was retaken, his punishment was to be One of the men, a huge, bearded lumberjack, whistled thrown into the Starside Gate. And so he came here ...' his appreciation as Siggi shrugged out of her parka and Over his shoulder, Tzonov said, 'But didn't you tell me sat down with Tzonov at a rough wooden table. In a previously that he couldn't understand his punishment? frontier place like this, she must surely be a sight for sore Isn't there something of an ambiguity here?' eyes. Ignoring the other staring faces all about her, Siggi glanced witheringly at the whistler and lit a 290 291 cigarette. This time Tzonov made no complaint but They stood at the tailgate. 'Open her up,' Tzonov simply said: 'And now you see what I mean when I talk issued his curt instruction. And as the soldier was letting about such people as sub-human!' down the tailgate: 'Is your radio on?' 'No, I don't,' she answered. These are just men, and 'Yes, sir!' men are the same all over the world. But this is a hard 'Didn't you hear them hailing you? From Perchorsk?' place and so these men are grown rough, like the timbers The complex? Nothing but static since I left the pass. I they handle. I find it much harder to understand think it's the radio to blame. It's on its last legs - sir!' intelligent, so-called "sophisticated" men, whose bodies Tzonov looked into the back of the truck. A spare may be clean and smooth but whose minds are just as tarpaulin, coiled ropes, a box of worn-out parts from the grubby if not worse than these!' Projekt's cranky ventilation system. 'What was your Tzonov scarcely felt slighted. He would never have cargo?' allowed it to cross his mind that she might be referring to 'Just what you see.' Still mystified, the other shrugged. him ... 'I'm on resupply, not delivery. I won't be full until I start Their table gave them a view of the dismal street. Fifteen back from the railway depot in Ukhta.' minutes later the truck arrived and stopped. Tzonov had Siggi had finished her coffee and joined them. She, thought it might. A moment later, the driver came in too, looked into the back of the truck. But she saw more in grinning and slapping his hands together, and found the there than Tzonov had seen. He needed eye to eye head of Soviet E-Branch waiting for him. The driver contact before his talent came into play, but with Siggi ... wasn't one of Tzonov's men but he was a soldier; he'd seen sometimes it was a lot more than just telepathy. Like Tzonov in Perchorsk and knew that he was a powerful, now. Why, it was almost as if she could smell Nathan in high-ranking official. He saluted as a matter of course. there! As if she could taste him, feel the rush and whirl of And Tzonov was into him in a moment: 'You: what's his numbers vortex. He wasn't here now, but he had your name?' been, certainly. And even now he wasn't that far away. 'Lance Corporal Ivanovich — sir!' He was young, burly, Tzonov looked at her. 'Well?' flustered under Tzonov's cold, penetrating glare. He 'Nothing,' she lied. wondered what was going on, and what it had to do with He turned to the Corporal driver. 'Ivanovich, we're him. looking for a man, the prisoner we were holding at Tzonov was looking out into the street; after noting Perchorsk. It's possible he escaped in this truck. These that the canvas at the tailgate was flapping loose, he'd tailgate lashings were loose. Were they like that when only taken his eyes off the truck for a moment. 'Out!' he you left the complex? Did you see or hear anything snapped. 'Back to your vehicle. Did you stop en-route suspicious? Speak up!' here? And let me warn you, Ivanovich, it's best not to lie The tarpaulin was OK when I left Perchorsk,' the to me.' soldier answered. 'It probably came loose on its own. I 'No, sir. Of course not - sir! Yes, I did stop, but only to warm up a little. A minute or two. That's all - sir!' 292 293 Standing some two miles to the north of Little Kozhva, a wasn't carrying anything anyway and so had nothing to steep-sided knoll of volcanic rock - the plug of a once- lose - sir!' mighty caldera - grew up above the forest some Tzonov had been staring straight into the Corporal's hundreds of feet high. The snowcat had skirted its thinly eyes and knew that he'd fumbled the lashings in Per- wooded base on the approach to the logging camp. chorsk. At least, he knew that the man suspected that Now, as Siggi and Tzonov headed north for Perchorsk, he'd fumbled them. It meant absolutely nothing. 'Damn it she asked him: 'How much power does this thing have? to heW he snarled, and turned to Siggi again. And now his Enough to climb that knoll?' eyes were hard and bright as marbles. 'Was he here?' 'If I climb gradually, along the contours, and make a 'No,' she lied again. And her mind-smog swirled, dank complete circuit, yes. Did you want to?' and impenetrable. 'The view from up there must be quite marvellous.' Whirling away from her and heading for the snowcat, 'Very well,' he grunted, however grudgingly. 'It will Tzonov only paused to shout back over his shoulder: cost us half an hour, but...' 'Well, then? Are you coming? For God's sake, let's get 'Are you still worrying about Nathan? But I'm sure out of here!' that by now they'll have found his hiding-place in the 'My parka,' she called after him. Til be a moment.' complex, or discovered him half-frozen, trying to climb The young soldier went back inside with her. As he out of the ravine.' helped Siggi on with her parka, she asked him: 'Where did you stop?' 'Perhaps you're right,' he answered. 'About half-way here,' he told her, 'just to warm up, By then the clouds were breaking up and wan beams as I said. And also ...' of sunlight were finding their way from the south. They 'Also?' weren't much, but they cheered Tzonov up a little ... 'Just outside of town, but very briefly. To let some travellers over the crossing.' At the top of the knoll, while Tzonov went off behind a Travellers! The word riveted her. 'Gypsies?' rocky outcrop to relieve himself, Siggi found binoculars in He nodded. They're late this year - or early. It's hard to the snowcat's panniers and swept the forested country to tell with the travelling folk. They just come and go.' the south-west. This was why she'd wanted to come up Then, looking worried, he asked her: 'Madame, am I in here: to see if she could catch a glimpse of - trouble?' - The travelling folk! Siggi only half-heard him. After a moment's silence, And there they were, the real thing, just as they had she gave herself a mental shake and answered, 'Eh, been for a hundred, two hundred, five hundred years and trouble? No, I shouldn't think so.' And controlling an more. Romany: pariahs and outcasts, suppressed, urge to laugh hysterically, she went outside to Tzonov persecuted, chased from country to country for all that and the snowcat... time. A race apart, yes, yet close and closer to their origins than any other race in the whole world; a party of Gypsies, their half-dozen painted caravans jolting 294 295 and jingling far beyond the range of audibility, but clear 'What do you see? Anything interesting?' The tone of as bells in Siggi's mind as she tried to bring them into his voice signalled nothing special. focus. Siggi sighed her relief and called back, 'Smoke from No, she couldn't; they were too far away, three or the villages and camps. A flight of birds, geese I think. maybe four miles; running from the winter, heading And some furtive creature in the woods. A dog, perhaps, or south. Except . .. something the young Corporal had said a wolf. It's all very cold out there, but it's all very had stuck in Siggi's memory. Being mobile, and with peaceful, too.' their knowledge of the seasons, why on earth were they 'Do you think so?' He went to the snowcat and started still here? They were a secretive, even esoteric people, it up. 'Well, my mind is full of vague premonitions. So true enough, and wherever possible would keep clear of enough of these sidetracks, let's get back to Per-chorsk.' the world's more heavily populated regions; but even so, All the way back Siggi was sad, for now she must by now they should be seven hundred miles further south. keep her mind caged behind bars of her own making. Down on the shore of the Caspian, in Astrakhan or Baku. And thinking of Nathan (however much she tried not to Or perhaps the Black Sea, Moldavia ... Romania? Yet think of him), she wondered if he was sad, too ... here they were, and only now fleeing the rigours of winter. When they arrived back at Perchorsk, Tzonov's 'vague Siggi looked around, her eyes tracing Tzonov's tracks in premonitions' quickly assumed tangible form. At the the snow. He was nowhere in sight. And again she picked crest of the pass his Platoon Commander was sitting in out the thin line of caravans on the fringe of a distant the half-track's driving seat with the engine already forest. Unlike Tzonov, her talent didn't require eye to eye ticking over, waiting patiently for the snowcat's return. contact; she could cast her mind like an arrow, if she had Staff-Sergeant Bruno Krasin was dark-skinned, wiry, a target. long-limbed. Thirtyish, square-jawed and hard-eyed, the Good luck! she sent. Run far and fast, Nathan, and blood of his Cossack forefathers still ran strong in him. never come back. She didn't for a moment believe he The son of an old hard-line communist and KGB officer, would answer, or even that he could. But... Krasin was one of Tzonov's most trusted men; indeed, he . . . A tendril of numbers touched her consciousness, was the man who would one day lead Tzonov's and at once fastened to her thoughts! Siggi's skin prickled expeditionary force through the Perchorsk Gate into an as if she stood close to a giant dynamo. And in her mind: alien world. On the way down to the complex he told Goodbye, Siggi. I won't forget you. Nathan's voice, Tzonov what had transpired in his absence. and his unique warmth. But so powerful! And Turkur 'First, our search teams have worked their way through Tzonov was receptive to strong telepathic signals. the Projekt scrupulously. They've scoured it just as you Nathan heard that, too; his carrier probe at once ordered, and the visitor isn't here. We've discovered disintegrated; the mental ether was clear again. And just nothing of his whereabouts. Second: it had been snowing in time, for Tzonov's voice came ringing: in the pass, but not too heavily. So 296 297 anyone on the run must leave tracks in the fresh snow. 'He can't even read!' Tzonov exploded. You would think so. Yet there was nothing. It's as if he 'But he can see! He's not unintelligent.' simply disappeared.' 'You told me there are no tracks.' Tzonov's And again Tzonov remembered who was Nathan's frustrations were mounting. father. But Siggi had sworn he didn't have his father's Siggi cut in: 'He's Szgany, from Sunside. He knows powers. And Nathan had seemed cowed and even how to cover his tracks. He has avoided the Wamphyri! In despondent in captivity. 'I take it your men are still out the wild, it will be like hunting the Invisible Man.' searching?' The British!' Tzonov growled. This morning I sent a Krasin nodded. 'I've sent out search parties into all of man to wake them up, but I didn't tell them he'd the neighbouring villages and camps. Also, and despite escaped. What, so that they could look for ways to that we cleared the trucks heading for Beresovo, I've sent assist him on his way? Anyway, they weren't fit for a motorcyclist after them to double-check. But in my much of anything. Probably still feeling the effects of opinion it's all a waste of time. Something that had to be the drug ... though by now it should have voided done, but a waste all the same. I think he had help.' itself.' He frowned, shrugged, continued. 'Apparently Tzonov shook his head. 'From here, Perchorsk? they were like zombies! And they didn't appear to Impossible! Who?' know anything. I left a message for them: I have been The British?' "called away", but I shall be at their disposal upon my 'Oh? How, when they've been kept little short of return.' prisoners themselves? Our agents in the embassies have 'But they are talented,' Krasin insisted. 'And you reported increased esper activity in London, but not yourself have frequently stated that their organization is around here. And anyway, what could they do?' second to none. Also, they have seen the visitor, Krasin had worked frequently with Soviet E-Branch, spoken to him. And if they haven't helped him in some providing the muscle behind some of Tzonov's more way, then why were they so eager to leave?' covert schemes. He vastly admired his talented master, 'What?' but knew that while Tzonov was a mindspy, he would They're out of here.' The other wasn't cowed. They never make an agent on the ground; that is to say, an came on the invitation of Gustav Turchin, and they espionage agent in the old sense of the word. His talent invoked his name to get out. They saw Projekt Direktor got in the way; he relied on it too heavily; he couldn't see Vanadze right after you left, and he arranged air the wood for the trees. The British have known about transport to Moscow. By then the jet-copter had this place since its early days,' he answered. 'From space, returned, and of course I had personally supervised the this has to be the most photographed place in the world. unloading of the machine. No -' he held up a hand, '- They know every track and trail from here north to the British didn't see it.' Vorkuta and south to Sverdlovsk. If they could get a 'Vanadze let them go?' Tzonov couldn't believe it. message, or a map, to the visitor .. .' 'How could he prevent it? He asked them to wait until your return, but they would have none of that. 298 299 They threatened to speak to Gustav Turchin himself, haps by acting upon him like a catalyst until he which turned the trick most admirably. The Premier is developed his father's powers. And damn it all -' he like a puppet; his policies tie him inextricably to Western slapped the flat of his hand against the half-track's steel economics; his political survival is entirely dependent door, '— that mightn't be so very far from the truth!' upon the USA, United Germany, and the UK. He The doors opened and they drove through. And as the would have ordered the immediate release of the British, half-track's uproar faded into silence and they and in the process would have given everyone else hell!' dismounted, Tzonov continued to paint his picture of They simply flew out of here?' It was getting worse. deceit. Ushering Krasin and Siggi to one side, and The other could only shrug. 'Yes. There was a British talking in a lowered tone now, he said: 'How then are we Airways Hawk from Moscow to London at 11:45. About to react? But how would we act, if our story were now . . . it will be seeking a window into Heathrow. But entirely true? We would be outraged, furious! What? even if you'd been here, what could you have done? Having shown the British every courtesy, they repay us They were guests, not prisoners.' with this ... this treachery? Then, as soon as my back is They were three-quarters of the way to the bottom of turned, they laugh like hyenas and flee to safety! the ravine. Two hundred feet below them, the man- Perchorsk's staff will back us up; they have seen nothing made lake of pent water was a sullen, leaden grey. Tiny extraordinary in my treatment of Trask and Goodly. Also, flyspeck figures in winter white uniforms moved antlike they wouldn't dare go against me.' where they searched icy scree slopes. As the half-track 'But we did drug those two,' Siggi reminded. 'Maybe slewed onto the ramp to the staging area in front of the that was a mistake.' Projekt's massive security doors, Tzonov calmed down a 'No.' He shook his head. 'I had to get them out of the little. 'You're absolutely sure they didn't see the way. I hoped to move my arsenal, hide it away. Also, we machine?' were bringing our visitor in through the Gate; I planned 'I am positive, sir.' to interrogate him . . . oh, a good many things! And all Tzonov took a deep breath. 'Then we must brazen it without their interference. Huh! Anyway, it's their word out.' against ours. They have no proof. If they dare to bring Siggi frowned. 'Brazen what out?' In closing her mind to charges, it will only be as an excuse for fleeing from us him so completely, she had also denied herself access to when in fact they're running from their own treachery. Of Tzonov's thoughts. course they are, for their mission is accomplished. The whole thing is a mess,' Tzonov snapped. 'And They've unleashed an alien creature upon us with powers we will be the ones who take the blame - unless we we don't understand. Ah, but our response ... will be to turn events to our own advantage. For example: the issue a warrant on this Nathan's life. To all intelligence British espers have gone home in a hurry. Why? Because agents in the field: terminate on sight, and as the they've been up to no good here. That will be our story, Americans are wont to say, "with extreme prejudice!"' anyway. So, what have they been up to? Well, we think Deep inside, Siggi Dam shuddered. For already it was they may have helped our alien visitor to escape, per- 300 301 as if Tzonov believed his own fictitious but very plausible the then E-Branch HQ, and to wreck it!' He turned to scenario ... Krasin. A Corporal came into the entrance bay from the 'You were right, Bruno, and this doodle tells all. Trask direction of the duties and control room. He came to has given himself away. He would employ exactly the attention in front of Krasin, saluted Tzonov, and took out same tactics that the British have used before, and send a slim notepad from a black leather briefcase. 'Sergeant,' the alien to Leipzig in the hope that his Necroscope father's he said to Krasin. 'You ordered me to search the rooms greatest talent will be reborn there. Except it won't be; on which the British occupied. I did so, and found this.' the contrary, it will die there!' Krasin examined the pad. 'Blank?' Krasin nodded; he wasn't au fait with the Keogh files 'It's the light,' the Corporal explained. 'But there are and records, but Tzonov's enthusiasm for this new clue, impressions.' this promising development, was infectious. 'And our 'Well done. You can leave it with me.' Krasin next step?' dismissed the man. Til have to speak to Moscow, Turchin,' Tzonov In Tzonov's rooms the three examined the notepad answered. 'And he will have to give me carte blanche in under a powerful lamp. The Corporal was quite right; this matter. But I want this Nathan, who or whatever, using a soft lead pencil, Tzonov criss-crossed the faint dead. For after all -' he glanced at Siggi, '- we've already marks until they sprang into sharp relief. Then: extracted a deal of information from him. We no longer 'What?' he frowned. But in another moment his frown have any use for him and so it's the safest way to faded and was replaced by a look of partial understand-- conclude the matter. Moreover, it will deny the British ing. The drawing was a sign, a sigil: a flat loop with a half any possible use of his services.' twist, in the fhjm of a figure of eight. 'Nathan's earring?' Krasin nodded. 'Meanwhile we'll keep searching, and 'More than that,' Siggi breathed. That's a Mobius Strip. in an ever-widening circle. Why wait until he gets to And there's a connection -' For a moment she could have Leipzig?' bitten her tongue, but in the next she reconsidered. What, 'Exactly.' Tzonov slapped his shoulder. 'Very well something as simple as this? A notepad, perhaps then, let's all of us now agree to act accordingly.' incriminating (at least in Turkur Tzonov's eyes), left lying Siggi was last out of his room. Before leaving she took casually in Trask's room where it was certain to be up the notepad and looked again at the simple telltale discovered? sketch. But in the privacy of her own room she smiled a '- With Harry Keogh!' Tzonov had caught on to her line secret smile, and thought: Well then, Mr Ben Trask, Mr of reasoning. 'I remember now. The first time Keogh is human lie-detector. But just because your talent is to known to have used teleportation, he was visiting the discover Jies, that doesn't mean you can't tell one from tomb of August Ferdinand Mobius in Leipzig. The Grenz time to time, eh? Or sketch one? And so you would like Polizei had trapped and surrounded him - but he to fuck my face, would you? Well, I can forgive you for disappeared! Only to turn up again at the Chateau that, for I know it was only your way of testing me. But if Bronnitsy, you'll settle for a kiss ...? 303 302 static at us morning, noon, and night, trying to scramble And smiling, she blew a kiss across the empty our probes. We haven't bothered to counter them; it's room .,. good to know where they are and what they're up to, and their efforts have been pretty useless at best. Also, As they passed through customs at Heathrow, Trask and some of our little yellow friends have been showing a Goodly were met by the spotter Frank Robinson. In his lot of interest in us, but since Peking and Moscow aren't early forties, still Robinson looked no more than twenty- in cahoots these days, we've simply let them get on with eight or -nine. His freckles gave him a permanent it. Meanwhile, we're keeping our eyes peeled, so to schoolboy look and his hair was blond as ever; he would speak.' always seem a 'young' sort of person. His presence at the airport served a dual purpose. One: he was meeting the 'Huh!' Trask grunted. 'Well, I know I should be Head of E-Branch and a colleague off their plane, and reassured, but I'm not. Things feel wrong. We could be two: he was keeping his eyes and mind open for other under surveillance right now, by gadget if not by ghost.' It mindspies. During the last twenty-four hours there had was a Branch in-joke. The espers talked of the two sides been a lot of unaccustomed esper activity, most of it of espionage: the gadgets of modern day technology, and stemming from the Russian embassy. It had been quite a the ghosts of parapsychology. Except this time Trask while since things were as hot as this. wasn't joking but stating a fact. For well over thirty During the drive to HQ, Trask wasted no time asking years now, hi-tech electronic surveillance had been one how the Branch had known he and Goodly were coming of the world's fastest growing industries. home; he automatically assumed they'd know almost as 'The car could be bugged, certainly,' Robinson much as he did. But he was interested in the state of play. shrugged. 'But it's something we live with. We can't 'How are we dealing with the Opposition?' cover ourselves all of the time.' 'Diplomatically,' Robinson answered. 'We can try,' Trask told him. 'And this time it's Trask knew what he meant: applying pressure to important as never before. So tell me no more for now, diplomatically immune persons could be difficult. But: and I'll save what I've got until we're home and dry.' 'Would you like to be a little more specific?' 'As you will.' Robinson nodded. 'But at least let me 'Well, one of their best telepaths was getting a bit too tell you this much: there's a surprise waiting for you at close for comfort by the time I spotted him. Cheeky sod! HQ.' He'd booked himself into the hotel downstairs and was 'Good or bad?' listening in from point-blank range! We told our friends in Robinson was negotiating a bend and for a moment Special Branch about him; they picked him up on a couldn't answer. lan Goodly, precog, was with Trask in moving traffic offence and planted - er, "found" - some the back of the car; he was looking out of his window, very illegal substances hidden in his car. Tsk-tsk! He's saying nothing. Perhaps he was hiding his face, which been confined to the embassy while the Minister for wore a grin like a Cheshire cat. Finally Robinson Foreign Affairs looks into it. And two more of Tzonov's answered Trask's question. 'Good or bad? You mean people have been driving round throwing a screen of your surprise? Good, I think. Indeed, excellent!' 304 305 ful, as simple as that. She always had been and he 'We shall see,' Trask grunted. Which was the end of guessed she always would be. At five feet nine, she was their conversation - just an inch shorter than he himself. But a looker: she was something else. Named by her Greek mother after - Until the scanners hidden in the walls of the elevator Zante (or more properly Zakinthos, the Mediterranean at E-Branch HQ had cleared them for bugs, and they island where she had been born), Zek was slim, leggy, were on their way up. Then Trask said: 'What's the blonde and blue-eyed. Trask would never forget how surprise?' she'd looked that time out in the Greek Islands, towards Robinson grinned. 'I think she'd prefer to speak for the end of the Janos Ferenczy nightmare; that day on herself.' She? Trask wasn't in the mood for games, and Manolis Papastamos's boat, when they'd gone looking was on the point of saying so when the doors hissed for the white ship, Ferenczy's Lazarus, to send her and open. As they stepped out into familiar surroundings, he her vampire crew to hell: heard voices from his office at the end of the corridor Zek had worn a yellow bikini consisting of very little where the door stood ajar. One voice was soft and even a and leaving nothing at all to the imagination. Just like little sibilant for all that its owner was a Londoner born now, she'd scarcely looked her age but was sleek, and bred: David Chung, who was the acting-Head of tanned, stunning. With her eyes blue as the Aegean, Branch in Trask's absence. And the other was female and her hair flashing gold, and a smile like a white blaze, not quite ... unfamiliar? Then, quite clearly, Chung said: everyone had agreed that she was a distraction. It was 'They're here!' Trask and Goodly knew that he could intended that she should be, a trick she'd learned from a only be referring to them. But who was he talking to? Wamphyri Lady on Starside: that even when men's Goodly thought he already knew but would wait and eyes are wary for other things, still it's relatively easy see. They weren't kept waiting, and as 'she' stepped out for a beautiful woman to turn them aside. And not only into the corridor Goodly saw how right he'd been. the eyes of men, but sometimes of monsters, too ... Sometimes the future was worth reading after all. And that was something else well worth remembering: Trask saw her, too, and his jaw dropped like a that quite apart from her wonderful command of trapdoor. Zek Foener! telepathy (her father had been an East German parapsy- chologist), Zek Foener was probably the world's greatest Across a distance of a dozen paces, Ben Trask and Zek living expert on the Wamphyri source-world. She had Foener checked each other out. At first there were actually been there - had lived there for long weeks differences: they looked as different as people do with and months, with both the Travellers and the Wamphyri - the passage of time. But stepping cautiously towards and survived the experience on her own until Jazz each other and as the distance narrowed down, the years Simmons had found her, since when they'd never been and all the changes fell away. Zek ... apart. She was still very beautiful. No, Trask made a mental Trask returned to the present. Zek must be - some correction, forget the 'still': Zekintha Foener was beauti- fifty years old now? Not that you'd ever guess it just 307 306 from looking at her. Strange, but for all that she and Siggi Still ... Trask knew how he found Zek, and couldn't Dam were miles apart, and not alone in their ages, he help wondering how she found him. Time hadn't been found it difficult not to compare them. Perhaps it was too devastating, but neither had it been quite so kind to because Siggi was fresh in his mind, or maybe it was Ben Trask. simply that their colours and shapes were alike. But that 'Ben,' she finally said, and again looked him up and was a peripheral comparison, lying fuzzy on the edge of down. 'Not too much damage, eh?' If he didn't know his awareness; while the rest of it, seen close-up ... that better .. . but he did. She managed a smile; it was wan, was the difference between a fjord and the Cote d'Azure. half-hearted. Perhaps she was tired. Not so simply put, Siggi Dam was flawless and 'I was thinking the same thing -' he answered. '-About therefore, by human standards, imperfect, while Zek myself, I mean! But you . . . " He shrugged. 'It's like Foener's small flaws were what made her perfect! For yesterday.' example her mouth, whose soft, naturally moist lips were 'Liar!' Her smile was still wan. 'But a nice try.' just a fraction too full, and tended to tremble when she 'When did you get in?' They touched hands, hugged was angry. And the uneven jut of her jaw, also when she however briefly. was upset, which seemed slightly more prominent on the Two hours ago. An early morning flight from Athens.' right. Unlike Siggi, and for that matter Turkur Tzonov, 'On your own?' Trask raised an eyebrow. David too, the two halves of Zek were a long way short of being Chung had joined them from Trask's office. He was mirror images, but they did accentuate her humanity. trying hard to catch Trask's eye across Zek's shoulder. Trask knew which he preferred. But too late. He also knew that all of these thoughts were his alone, Zek didn't look away, didn't even blink. 'Jazz died six that Zek wouldn't betray a trust and read him uninvited. weeks ago,' she said, softly. 'Something he'd been fighting For while the mindspies of E-Branch worked as closely a little less than a year.' as possible as one body, it was important that they retain Trask squeezed his eyes shut and let out his breath in their own identities and personalities intact, inviolate. a slow, painful sigh. 'Oh, Zek! I...' Being a powerful telepath in her own right, Zek would He wanted to hold her again but she took a small pace understand that the code of such people made no to the rear, and cut him off with: 'Before Jazz died, he allowance for casual snooping. said he wished that we'd tidied things up a bit. For At the other end of the spectrum, however, in the event Harry's sake, if for no other reason.' it became necessary in the performance of their duties (if 'And that's why you're here?' a colleague's life were under threat, or E-Branch itself She nodded. 'Also, because I thought I might be endangered), then it might be possible, theoretically at needed. For almost a week now I've felt that something least, to link-up as one Entity, one Talent. It hadn't was going on. I mean, after Harry ... left us, I felt sort of happened yet, and never would if it meant permanent switched off, drained, depressed. But this last five or six damage to identity. days I've felt switched on again. David here has 308 309 'When the future allows it,' he answered, 'and only filled in a few blanks for me, but not everything. No, of then when I can't avoid it.' The gloomy expression was course not, because I suppose you'll want to clear me.' back on his face. 'You want to work with us?' It was too good to be 'Is it that bad?' true. 'I'll try to explain it to you some time,' he said. 'Maybe Again her nod. 'For now, anyway. Jazz would have when you're settled in.' wanted me to, certainly.' And Trask barely managed to keep from snorting his Zek's truth registered in Trask's mind. 'You're cleared,' frustration. It was more of a promise than the precog had he said. And to Chung, urgently now: 'Where is made him in twenty years! Well, that wasn't quite true, everyone?' but he'd never been so ready, willing, and able about it. 'In Ops. Working, watching, planning, waiting - for There again, Trask wasn't Zek Foener ... you. We only need your say-so to go in and bring him out.' Trask said: 'Bring him out? Only as a last resort. Guide him out, that's different.' He looked at Zek again. 'Have you met everyone? Are you fed and watered? Has David looked after you? I mean, I hate to throw you in at the deep end, Zek, but you're right: things are on the move.' The ice was broken now; its last few slivers were melting away, and Zek's smile was that much brighter. She laughed and said, 'I've had the VIP treatment, but I haven't met everyone, not yet.' 'First, lan Goodly,' Trask introduced them. 'He's a precog. lan, I want you to meet...' '... Zekintha Foener.' Goodly offered his thin warm hand. 'An incredible asset.' 'She is, yes,' Trask agreed. But Goodly only glanced at him, and again looked at Zek in that occasionally intense, disturbing way of his, and said, 'No, I meant she will be - and starting right now. Delighted to make your acquaintance, Zek. And don't worry: you're going to get on famously with everyone.' She took to Goodly immediately, and as they started along the corridor towards Ops, said, 'You read the future?' 310 of good telepaths into London in the last twenty-four hours, maybe then. But they haven't. What talents they do have are small fry, and the best of them has been VII Szgany nailed down in their embassy. They're not even trying to Ferengi eavesdrop, just slinging a little mental mud about.' Trask glanced at Zek seated in the front row, cocked his head on one side inquiringly. She put a hand to her brow and closed her eyes, and after a moment nodded and said, 'There's a lot of static about but nothing specific. It's just so much flak. They don't know what to Introductions took fifteen minutes. The actuality of E- aim at. I think I would know if someone was listening.' Branch - what its members did, what they were, their 'Right,' said Trask. 'Briefly, then: We went to the various talents - wasn't a problem. Zek simply accepted it Perchorsk Projekt in the Urals to check out a man who at face value, and knew it for a fact. In the old days, at the had come through the Gate, to find out if he was a man. end of Gregor Borowitz's term as Head of the Opposition, We went because my opposite number, Turkur Tzonov, and again during Ivan Gerenko's reign of terror, she had invited us . . . so we thought. But it now turns out we worked for Soviet E-Branch. Better still, she'd been a were there mainly because Gustav Turchin had ordered close friend of the Necroscope and had seen what he it. Tzonov made the best of a bad situation and used us could do - and knew what he had been before he left for to his own advantage. His visitor is a man, but by no Starside. Which were qualifications enough. means an ordinary one. And so that you can all stop Then it was time to put them all in the picture. wondering about it right now: this isn't the baby we Including lan Goodly. Things had happened in Per-chorsk cared for at Branch HQ that time, who later took his which Goodly still didn't know about, and Trask mother to Starside and became The Dweller and a wondered how he would take being told about them. On legend there. No, for he was only one of Harry Keogh's the other hand, perhaps he already knew what Trask sons. And this visitor from the Gate, he's another! would talk about. Things which were plain in Trask's 'Now, I'm not a telepath but Nathan - that's his name - hindsight might very well have been known to Goodly in spoke to me like that, telepathically, on three separate advance, before the event! Working with espers was hell. occasions. It takes a powerful sort of mind to do that, Trask got them all seated and walked up and down in even when the contact is invited, as I invited him. Also, front of them for a moment or two to get his thoughts in it's true that as espers we naturally accept the existence order. Then, to David Chung: 'What's the chance of the of diverse talents and so make ourselves more accessible Opposition latching on to any of this?' to them. Still, Nathan's talent is something to be 'Very small,' Chung answered. 'Things have moved too reckoned with. He's as good and even better than our fast for them. If they'd managed to sneak a couple very best. 312 313 'What we talked about in our first two conversations at all to do with multiplication tables and slide rules. isn't important, but the last time -' Trask paused and Nathan has no schooling; his father's numbers are in him, looked at lan Goodly, who had been listening intently certainly, but they can't find their way out. Not unless he from the first mention of this previously unsuspected gets some expert help. I told him we might be able to contact, '- that was different. It was during last night, or help him that way, and he was interested. early this morning. Nathan's telepathic "voice" came to 'But he's even more interested in his father, Harry me in my sleep, but I sensed it was much more than any Keogh, a man he never knew. Nathan's only a young ordinary dream. He'd been held a prisoner but had freed man, but all of his life he's had this weird stuff in him, himself - don't ask me how! Now he was off and running, which again he couldn't or wouldn't specify, though I heading for Romania and the second Gate, his one route could make a pretty shrewd guess. And he's never known home to Sunside. That's all Nathan's trying to do: get where any of it came from, only the feeling of something back home again to some unfinished business, which he incredible waiting just around the corner for him, if only didn't specify. he can get it all together. 'And he needed help. Was there any way I could 'So, I told him a few things about Harry. Not a lot, just smooth the way for him, take out any obstacles in his enough to illustrate how much we all owed him. And I path? Well, perhaps I could, but even so . . . said that while Harry never got much of a square deal I told him he'd never make it; if he got as far as what from the living of this world, at least the dead had loved used to be the Romanian border, Tzonov's men would be him. So much that they would even get up out of their waiting for him. And Tzonov was only the beginning, for graves for him! And when Nathan heard that: how much beyond him ... there is no way Nathan could even get into the Great Majority had loved his father, and some of the the resurgence without our help. I told him we had the things they'd done for him ... that was when I knew I had place guarded, and even a little about the Radujevac him! Refuge. But at least we're in control out there, so there 'But don't think I take any pride in it, and don't get me might be something of a chance eventually. But right now wrong. I haven't hooked into him like a fish, and I don't . . . it was out of the question that he might somehow be intend to play him like one, either. Now that I've met able to swim or navigate the underground river to the Nathan and know him, I just think he's entitled to some of Gate. Quite impossible. No one but Harry Keogh has ever the breaks that Harry didn't get, that's all. What I'm done it, and Nathan doesn't have his father's powers - not saying is this: if we do manage to get him out of there, it's yet, anyway. for him, not for us. The only satisfaction we'll get out of 'How could he have such powers? His people are it is knowing that Tzonov hasn't got him. But after that, Travellers, Gypsies. Always on the move to avoid the it's Nathan's choice.' Wamphyri, they've developed no science as such, no Trask let everything he'd said so far sink in, then numbers. We know that the Necroscope's thing was a continued: 'When I woke up this morning I knew our mathematical trick he conjured out of his mind. It was business was done in Perchorsk, and the best thing would metaphysical maths, Mobius maths, which has nothing be to get out of there and see if we could help 314 315 r Nathan from outside. And that's what we're doing.' something as dangerous as the Gate ...' Lost for words, Again he looked at Goodly but spoke to everyone. 'So Trask shook his head. 'Pandora's box just isn't in the you see, all of this stuff that passed between Nathan and same league!' me is news even to lan Goodly here, because if I had told David Chung spoke up. 'What will you do?' him about it -' Trask shrugged. 'Pass on all we know to our Minister '- Then there'd be another mind to leak it,' Goodly said, Responsible, and let him take it from there. Eventually it nodding. 'Yes, of course. I understand.' should get back to Turchin, and hopefully he'll be able to 'Right,' Trask said. 'So now let's talk some more about deal with it - if he's not in on it. And if he is, he won't. Tzonov. Well, lan and I snooped around in the Perchorsk Which means that at some time in the future, we might Projekt and saw some pretty worrying stuff, enough that have to deal with it ourselves.' we think Tzonov is going to be a real problem, and not He hitched himself up on the edge of the briefing only to us. He's already ticking like a political time-bomb podium. 'Right, that's me done for now. There will be a in his own country, and Gustav Turchin's the only one detailed report later, which I expect all of you to read. who doesn't seem to hear him yet. Or we hope he doesn't. And now it's your turn. What have you lot been up to?' But if Turchin's in on it -well, so much for all the Chung stood up. 'I tracked you to Perchorsk, just to gJasnost he's been engaging in. keep an eye on you. And incidentally, there's some very 'For the fact is, Tzonov's got an arsenal at Perchorsk, heavy Opposition static up there in the Urals!' and there can only be one reason why. lan and I saw the 'Siggi Dam,' Trask nodded. 'She'll be in my report, too. Gate, and we can tell you that it's locked up safer than But I interrupted you; I'm sorry; please go on.' the doors on the Bank of England. Just like Nathan, This talent, the latent power you felt in Nathan,' Chung anything that comes through is going to be trapped and continued. 'This "weird stuff", as you named it. It was dealt with at the discretion of the people at this end. So what I sensed - and Zek, too - even before he was no need to worry about any sort of invasion from through the Gate. The closer he got to our world, the Starside. But maybe we do need to concern ourselves more we felt his presence. And that's where we hold an about an invasion in the other direction! ace card over Tzonov. Namely, me!' Chung grinned. 'Now here's the problem: how to stop it? How can we Tzonov doesn't have a first-rate locator. One or two tell Turchin what we suspect if he's in on it? Will he second-raters, but nothing nearly as good as me. And I want to stop it, or will he consider Sunside/Starside a have my own crystal ball.' He held up Harry's hairbrush. new Soviet territory ripe for conquest and exploitation? If 'Now that Nathan's through the Gate, it's like this thing the latter, and he lets Tzonov go ahead, how will that has come alive. If it was a lodestone, Nathan would be work out for the rest of us? The Russians have made due north! I can locate - I've been locating him - far some pretty big errors in the past, several of which easier than anything I ever did before.' continue to affect the world even today. Chernobyl and Trask's sigh of relief was clearly audible, but: 'I hope the Aral Sea are just two examples. But to mess with you've been careful,' he said in a moment. 'God knows 316 317 of the indicated area, a grid some ten-by-ten miles. Trask we don't want the Opposition using you as a carrier beam!' pressed the 'hold' button; Chung removed his hand; the Chung shook his head. 'I've kept my tracking to a small, magnified area on the inset screen defined minimum, a glance at a time. But I can go to the map Nathan's location: an area of woodland, forest trails, board and show you where he is - I mean right now! frozen marshes. That's what I was talking about when I said we could 'So he's somewhere in there,' Trask mused, his eyes bring him out. Under cover of darkness; a stealth rapt on the screen. helicopter, a team of SAS men, and me; we'd be in and 'No, not "somewhere".' Chung wasn't known for his out before the Comrades even knew we ...' modesty in matters such as this. 'He's dead centre.' '... Comrades?' Trask held up a hand. 'And that's what I In the next moment both men became aware of the meant when I said we could guide him out. But go in and perfume of a third person close behind them. Zek Foener. snatch him? The way you're talking, anyone would think 'David,' she said. 'Ben. Do you remember that time in we're at war! We're not, not even a cold war. In fact with Rhodes? Harry was in the Carpathians, and we wondered Gustav Turchin in the chair we never had it so good. how he was doing?' Which is why we daren't go stirring it up now. But if we The two men looked at each other, then at Zek. And can get Nathan closer to the border ...' Trask said: 'You want to establish contact?' Suddenly Trask couldn't resist it. Shrugging himself 'Why not?' She was deadly serious. 'You want to guide down from the podium, he headed for the map board and him out of there, don't you? And you know that the said, 'Show me where he is.' longer it takes, the greater the danger. Even now his Chung beat him to it, got there as the huge screen chances are slimming down. So if we can reach him, and flickered into life. He held Harry Keogh's old hairbrush if he's willing ...' tightly in his left hand, reached up his right hand and Trask pulled at his chin. The other espers had gathered placed it flat on the screen in an area to the west of the round, were watching intensely. 'Do it,' Trask said. 'But if Northern Urals. Then he closed his eyes. A smaller screen you do get through, make it as brief as possible. First inset at the bottom right of the wall screen blurred into establish contact, then we'll work out details which you grey life, waiting to indicate a specific region. The map can relay later.' overall was sensitive but wouldn't react to Chung's entire Trask had seen all of this before, but it was new to palm, only to a finger. And as Chung's brow creased into some of the others. Zek closed her hand over Chung's a tight frown and his eyes screwed yet more tightly shut, with the hairbrush still in it, and he touched the fingertips so he drew his fingers together until his hand was raised of his right hand to the centre of the small screen. Then up and only the index finger touched the screen. they closed their eyes, breathed deeply, and concentrated, 'There!' he said. concentrated ... The inset screen snapped into a clear, detailed chart ... And gasped in unison! Zek's hand flew from Chung's; both of them staggered back away from the wall screen; Trask caught their 319 318 arms, steadying them. But when Zek looked at him he scope, who talked to dead people, yet warm. A man with saw her expression change from a look of astonishment the powers of a destoying angel - even an Angel of Death to one of wonder. And: 'Numbers!' she said. 'He may - but innocent. not know how to use them, but they're part of him He read these things and more, and knew that she had anyway. Certainly he knows how to hide behind them.' known his father. But who was she? 'Oh yes, that's him,' Trask said, snatching a breath; She opened her secret mind. And now it was Nathan's and it surprised him, with all of his experience, to turn to gasp. Zek! His astonishment rang in her mind. discover that he'd actually been holding it! Lardis's hell-lander friend! He still speaks of you! You 'But he is hiding,' Zek repeated, 'shielding his mind. were there, with the Travellers in Sunside! You fought And his shield is . . . very powerful. If I'm to get through, I alongside the Szgany in the battle for The Dweller's shall need help.' garden, before I was born! Trask knew what she meant. A group effort, of She formed a picture for him, of what it had been like. concentrated will. And as she and Chung stepped closer And there was no disguising the fact that she had been to the screen, so the espers clustered to them, linked there, for no one who didn't know the Wamphyri could hands and formed a semi-circle with Zek, Chung and ever attempt so vivid a description, or conjure such depths Trask at its centre. And now Trask's hand, too, covered of loathing. But then her woman's curiosity took over: those of the telepath Zek, and the locator Chung. And How old are you, Nathan? He once again Chung made contact with the screen - told her. - And with Nathan! And now Zek could see it all. When The Dweller returned But this time they were ready; Zek forced her Jazz and myself home - when he brought us back here — telepathic probe straight into, and through, the whirling Harry stayed behind a while, in your world. Nathan took it wall of Nathan's numbers vortex. His mind - at first up. My father, Hzak Kiklu - at least, he was the one I was surprised, then afraid - was revealed to her: always led to believe was my father - had been mortally Who . ..? wounded. He was dead. But my mother... A friend, she sent. Even as I was your father's friend. Zek sensed Nathan's confusion, the wound that was My father? opening in him - a feeling of betrayal? - and was quick The Necroscope, Harry Keogh. off the mark to counter it. Nona Kiklu? Your mother? For a single moment the vortex was reinforced; it Still alive and well? But she's an incredibly brave woman, whirled that much harder, faster, and threatened to hurl Nathan! Oh, yes, I remember Nona! It was the aftermath; her out. But in the next it collapsed, and at its core . .. she was lonely and had suffered . . . a lot! But Harry had Nathan was a wondering child. And Zek sighed, for to suffered, too, and in a way he'd lost more than anyone. So her touch his mind was the image of his father's in the they were two of a kind, thrown together by forces beyond long ago: warm, vulnerable, innocent. But that had their control. Except ... J'm always been the paradox, and never more than at the end. Harry Keogh, vampire, and vulnerable. A Necro- 320 321 sure there was a Jot more to it than just that. Zek tried to learned from the desert-dwelling Thyre in their colonies be as understanding, yet as honest, as circumstances south of Sunside. Thus, almost from his first fumbled allowed. They must have faJJen in Jove. conversation with the men of the caravans, understanding She could feel Trask's grip tightening on her wrist, and had been mutual and friendship inevitable. But he had heard his whisper in her ear: 'Get out of there! Don't sensed that meeting up with them was far more than just jeopardize him!' a matter of good fortune; it had seemed almost You've Jured me. Nathan was very quiet now, almost predestined, so that now he asked the old chief: accusing. I have to know everything. And you knew I 'How did you know?' wouJd ... The other cocked his head on one side and winked. He Nathan, she answered. You know Trask. His mind is an was all dark-stained leather, a glint of gold tooth, a plain open book. He reads truth in men. SureJy you read the gold ring in the lobe of his right ear, and more gold on truth in him? You'JJ come to no harm with us. We won't his fingers. But . . . no silver? 'Ah, and so you sensed use you. And from now on 1 won't intrude upon you that, did you? That we'd been waiting for you?' The old again ... unJess you ask me to. man chuckled. 'Well, that's my secret. It's why I'm the There was a long pause, and then: What do you want chief!' me to do? Where must I go? Of course, Nathan could look inside his head if he I'JJ get back to you soon, Zek told him with a glad wanted to, but he wouldn't. That was something else he'd sigh. PJease be ready ... learned from the Thyre: that except in circumstances of mutually agreed intercourse between friends or That night, the Gypsies made camp in a forest on the colleagues, or in times of extreme danger to the edge of a frozen marsh twenty miles east of Kozhva. In community as a whole, the privacy of the individual was the caravan of their old, leathery leader, Nathan was an ever sacrosanct. A glance might be permissible, honoured guest. acceptable, almost unavoidable, but never the wholesale From the moment he'd spotted them from his hiding ransacking of a mind's contents. In a nutshell: it was place in the back of the supply vehicle out of Perchorsk unseemly to steal the private thoughts of others when (and risked his neck leaping from the truck's tailgate into simple speech would suffice. A person must always be a bank of snow at the side of the road), Nathan had given the opportunity to speak his mind. known that these were his people. They were almost It was why Nathan had restricted the use of his indistinguishable from the Szgany of Sunside. That had telepathy to learning the language of these Travellers. come as a shock to him, to find such people here. And an They knew nothing of his mentalism, nor would he even greater shock to hear their spoken language, which enlighten them. For if he should appear too clever, if he had more of the Sunside tongue in it than the Russian he knew or understood too much too soon, it could well had been 'learning' in Perchorsk. distance them. And in the event of their rejection - if they Languages were easy for Nathan; matching spoken were to brand him a thought-thief - eventually he might words to mind-pictures was a simple device, which he'd find himself deprived not only of their friendship 322 323 but possibly of his liberty, too. Nathan still thought in wondered how long since the first of them had Sunside/Starside terms, and probably always would. accompanied their banished Wamphyri masters out of So he said nothing but simply sat and waited, and was Starside and into these hell-lands. Then they had been at last rewarded, in some small measure at least, when thralls and now were free. So . . . what of their old finally the weathered old chief said, 'There are some masters? strange places in the world, don't you think?' 'I'm a Ferengi, did you know?' The old man grinned. 'I know very little of the world,' Nathan answered after Nathan gave a small start. Perhaps his unspoken a moment's thought. 'In what way, strange? What places question had been answered. On Sunside the name had do you mean?' been a curse since time immemorial! Of course, for 'Oh, just places.' The old chief shrugged, puffed on his among the Wamphyri there had always been creatures clay pipe, and continued to be vague. He didn't appear of that selfsame ilk. Ferenc, Ferenczy, Ferengi: in all its concerned about his guest's obvious ignorance, his lack forms the name was an evil invocation. of knowledge generally, or even his occasionally strange 'Vladi Ferengi, aye.' The chief nodded. 'Last of a long, manner of expression. 'I'm talking about the old places, long line. The very last, for my woman was barren - or you know? The timeless old places. Places the Szgany maybe I was!' He grinned and patted the front of his know - some of the Szgany, anyway - and which they baggy trousers. This firm old friend steamed hot enough visit from time to time. Places they've always visited.' in the romp, but his issue was cold and dead - maybe. Nathan wasn't sure how best to answer that, and so But what does it matter, eh? I have no sons, and that's returned to studying his surroundings: The caravan was the end of it. My people will stop going there. To the similar to vehicles he'd seen on Sunside: four wheels, strange places.' beast-drawn, varnished and painted with intricate, 'You mean that you won't be here to lead them there?' flowing designs. Central to the interior, a wood-burning Nathan was curious now. stove stood on legs which were bolted to the floor; a fire- That's right. I won't be here to hear the call.' blackened flue went up through a metal collar to a An idea was beginning to take shape. 'All of this cowled chimney in the roof. Festooned on the outside seems to connect up,' Nathan said. 'You are trying to with all sorts of pots and pans and other implements that explain something which you yourself don't understand, in jingled and gonged when it moved, it had a curving roof the hope that I might understand it for you. And maybe I of varnished boards in place of the waterproofed hides do . . . well, some of it. But first you must tell me: are which Nathan was used to. Other than that, and the Szgany Ferengi an old people? How long have you especially here in the forest, he might fancy himself back been ... here?' on Sunside. 'My grandfather's great-great-grandfather was a But no, it was far too cold for Sunside, and these Ferengi, aye,' the old one answered. That's as far back as people were only the descendants of true Travellers. I care to trace the line. But I've no doubt that he would Nathan saw that now - knew that it must be so - and say the same, if he were here now! How long, you ask? I've seen the Ferengi device carved in the mountains of the Khorvaty, which is one of the strange places. But 324 325 such a device, eh? And old as the mountains themselves.' Forsaking ethics for a moment, Nathan allowed Nathan knew the sigil he referred to; he'd seen it carved himself a single glimpse behind the old chief's eyes, and saw: in the timber frame of Vladi's caravan, skilfully disguised in the intricate but flowing designs that were painted ... The figure of a great man, hands on hips. Tower- there: the head of a devil, with crimson eyes, bifurcate ingly benevolent. And all the world's Travellers at his tongue, and grinning jaws that dripped gouts of blood. He feet, under his care, prosperous in their gleaming, painted put the picture aside and said, 'The Khor-vaty? Do you caravans and proudly flying his banner: the devil's head mean back there? That place in the pass, Perchorsk, with its crimson eyes, forked tongue, and spattered gouts where I. . . came from?' of blood. 'Eh? Ah, no! Not there! Only feelings there, Nathan, But in the light of the latter ... perhaps Vladi and his and recent ones at that: a dozen or two of years at best. people weren't so innocent after all. Feelings, my son, which have spawned nothing. I thought 'You're waiting for the Ferengi,' Nathan said, but very that perhaps this time -' he shrugged, '- but it was only slowly and carefully. 'I can only tell you this: that he - you.' they - would come if only they could be sure of their Nathan nodded. Things continued to connect, however reception.' It was true enough, he was sure. But to dubiously. He didn't much care for the connection, but himself: Except they believe this place is hell, and I shall never enlighten them.' must pursue it anyway. Perhaps he could accelerate the process. 'Should I tell you a word, a name?' 'Ahhh!' The old man released Nathan's arm and fell The chief raised an eyebrow. 'By all means.' back in his seat against the caravan's side. 'But . . . do they 'Wamphyri!' think we have forgotten them?' For a moment his huge It had the desired effect. 'An emissary!' Vladi leaned black eyes were empty, but then they brightened. 'Surely forward and grasped Nathan's arm, his astonishing speed the Ferengi would not send you here without that they belying his age. 'You are from them, their messenger could recall you? When and how will you go back — between the worlds! The Old Ferengi is dead - long Jive from where will you depart — to reassure the Lords of the Ferengi! Now quickly, tell me: what message does he their glorious reception here?' send? And when will he come?' Before, Nathan had spoken a half-truth. Now he must Nathan saw it all now: Vladi and his people were lie outright, or at least shape his answer carefully, to descended from Wamphyri supplicants. And suddenly his disguise his real purpose. But since he'd now associated skin crawled under the old chief's gaze and touch. But he these supplicant Travellers with the Wamphyri, he mustn't show it; and anyway, it wasn't their fault. They shouldn't find too much difficulty in lying. There are didn't know, couldn't possibly remember after all this Gates between worlds,' he said. 'Back in Perchorsk, there time, the true nature of the being or beings they still was one such, but I may not go back that way. Now tell waited to serve, as their fathers' fathers had served before me: where are the other strange places?' them. 'Do they wait for you there?' Vladi was excited again. He tapped rapidly upon the side of his veined nose, 326 327 etched lines. 'I read things in the lines, in flights of birds, producing a hollow, drumming sound, and said, 'I know in the mists of the earth. I see things, hear things, know them, these Gates and the strange places which contain things, which other men can never know! I have ... them! Only tell me where you would go and we will feeh'ngs! Voices call to me out of the winds; the planets take you there.' that travel through the skies direct my travels; the waters 'Ah, but my route may be circuitous.' (Nathan's turn of my ears and brain are lured even as the moon lures the to be vague.) There is information I must gather along tides. And as the Ferengi's true blood of life was in my the way, before I can go back. You must not question father, so my father's blood is in me. Ah, for the blood is me.' the life!' 'Ahhh!' (Again the old chief's sigh.) 'Now we The old chief stood up, turned down the lamp, and in understand each other! But do you see why I was the glow from the stove stepped to his bed beside the cautious? These things of which we speak, they are not door. Nathan went to his own bed, a narrow bench at the ordinary things.' back of the caravan, and curled up there. So old Vladi Nathan relaxed a little. 'So, the Travelling Folk, you was a seer, a fortune-teller: he read future times .. . but he and your people, have waited all these years without wasn't a mentalist. And Nathan knew that he could leave number for the Wamphyri - the Ferengi - to return and his mind unguarded, so that Zek could come to him. lead you to greatness. But what of the Old Ferengi, who Before sleeping, Vladi's whisper reached out to Nathan brought you here?' in the dark: 'About your route. When will you know 'Gone.' The other's voice was a sad, empty sigh. which path to follow? In the autumn, because I sensed 'Turned to dust in their crumbling castles, or stiffened to that something was happening in the old places, I stones in their unmarked tombs, or burned to ashes in instructed my people to lay in food for men and beasts the fires of men. They are no more.' alike, so that we might winter in the caves of the 'Men hunted them down?' Perhaps these hell-lands foothills. But now ... it's cold out here in the open, and we deserved their name after all: hell for the Wamphyri, at may not stay too long.' least. 'Maybe in the morning,' Nathan answered. 'Come 'I won't speak of it!' Vladi shook his head. 'The sunup, I'm sure I'll know by then.' Szgany Ferengi remain true. When you return you must They will... speak with you, you think?' tell them this: that we remember them still, and will 'Someone will, yes.' always be true to their memory. While I live, at least.. .' 'Ahhh!' His ancient voice tapered away, and Nathan could see And to prove it, long after the old chief began to snore, that he was tired. But before he would let him sleep, or Nathan lay awake, waiting and listening for that someone sleep himself: 'You still haven't told me how you knew.' .. . The old man reached up and tapped his nose again, winked, opened the palm of his hand to show its deep It was so obvious that Ben Trask wondered why they 328 329 hadn't seen it from square one. But having wondered, situ and resupplied on a regular basis by jet-copter out he'd known the answer to that, too: that mindspies are of Stockholm via Helsinki. Why not from Moscow or not spies in the classic sense uf the word. David Chung Sverdlovsk, or from the long-established fields east of had been pretty close with his suggestion that they go in the Urals in Beresovo and Ust'balyk? But if the Soviets with a team of specialists. But it wasn't until Trask got in had retained that sort of technological capacity or know- touch with the Minister Responsible, and he in turn how following their industrial, economic and ideological spoke to others on a similar level in the Corridors of collapse, then the West would never have been allowed Power, that everything came together. Chung's sort of in in the first place. specialists wouldn't be required. A different type of Part of a Western Aid Programme agreed in the early specialist was already in place. 1990s, the Izhma Projekt was only one of many For fifteen years now the West had been helping sort hundreds of schemes in progress right across the old out Russia's problems; ever since those three momentous USSR, from the Black Sea to the Kamchatka Peninsula, days - the 19th, 20th, and 21st of August, 1991 -when as and from Novaya Zemlya to Irkutsk. Now a small the result of a bungled coup against the then President portion of that huge debt - in the shape of a wanderer Mikhail Gorbachev, old-style Communism had died a from another world - would flow the other way, but with well-earned death and signalled the giddy ascent of two any luck the Russians would never know of the hundred and fifty million oppressed people to freedom repayment. and a true democracy. But while the mailed fist and the Except: apparatus of the Old State were mainly absent now, the 'Maybe our luck just ran out,' Zek said, worriedly. helping hand of the West remained extended, and its It was a little after 1:30 a.m. GMT in London, and influence was never more in evidence. about 5:00 a.m. local in the woods west of Kozhva, West of the Urals (only a little more than seventy where her call had shocked Nathan from his sleep. She'd miles from where David Chung had found Nathan and kept it short: told him to head due west for Izhma, and Zek Foener had contacted him), in the chill, sparsely what to look for. Then, almost too hurriedly, she'd pulled populated foothills of the Timanskiy Kryazh near Izhma, out. Now Zek's face was drawn, and not only from American geo-satellites had detected evidence of oil and concentration. gas fields which might well rival those at Ukhta in the Ben Trask's voice echoed her concern when he asked, south. Exploratory drilling had started two years ago; 'What is it, Zek?' satellite predictions had been confirmed; the Anglo- 'Unless I miss my guess,' she answered, 'there were American consortium would collect its very reasonable other minds out there scanning around, looking for fee and pull out in two to three years' time as per the Nathan. And one of them was female, and powerful!' contract, leaving other Western outfits to complete the Most of the other Branch members were present, pipeline. And from then on the Russians would pay a including lan Goodly. He said, That would be Siggi royalty or percentage in perpetuity. Dam. She's their very best.' Meanwhile the hard-hats were still there, working in It was hardly reassuring. Likewise Zek's: 'But there 330 331 was more than just that one. And at least one of the time and keep going for a day and a half. In any case, the others was a locator, I think. His probe wasn't telepathic, supply plane won't leave Stockholm until it's over.' anyway.' 'Oh, really?' Trask grunted. 'Well in that case I've got The reason they had chosen this hour (the early hours some bad news for the pilot. The first hint of a break in of the morning in the Urals) was a simple matter of the weather, and he's airborne!' He glanced at Chung. human frailty. Espers need sleep as much as other 'And David, I want you to get some sleep. Tomorrow people, and the Opposition's agents no less than anyone morning you're with me on the first flight to Stockholm. else. At five in the morning, people were at a low ebb. Then, obviously, I want you on that supply plane to There was a flaw in that line of reasoning, of course: Izhma. If our man is coming in out of the cold, I don't namely that Turkur Tzonov would understand the want him getting lost.' principle, too. But it had been a calculated risk. Trask looked at the other espers and smothered a Trask said: 'Do you think they overheard you?' yawn. 'As for getting your heads down: with the exception 'Not overheard as such ... but they might have sensed of duties, the same goes for all of you.' He stretched his my presence, just as I sensed theirs.' shoulders and eased his neck. 'I don't know about anyone Trask looked at a blow-up of the area superimposed else, but I'm dead on my feet. Time we called it a day.' on the large screen. Terrain?' he queried of no one in And as they started to disperse: Thanks for being here, particular. everyone.' 'Fairly flat,' someone spoke up. 'Hard ground and a In a matter of minutes he and Zek were alone. 'And few woodland trails. Some moorland and frozen marsh, especially you,' he told her. Thanks for being here.' but plenty of cover in bands of dense, boreal forest. 'Your coffee is dreadful,' she said. 'But David booked Climate? Cold enough to freeze the ... antlers off an iron me in at the hotel down below, and theirs is quite good. elk.' (That last in deference to Zek, Millicent Cleary, and We could talk about Harry maybe, for a while ... ?' Anna Marie English.) Trask looked at her. She looked as tired as he felt, and 'But Nathan is hardy,' Zek said. 'A Traveller in the this was her first time in England. A very capable company of his own kind.' She'd taken that from Nathan's woman, Zek, but right now she must feel lonely as hell. mind in a blurred, rushed sequence. 'But I wonder: what So did he, come to think of it. But then, he had for most on earth were they doing up there, those Gypsies?' of his life. 'Sure,' he nodded. 'A nightcap would be great.' 'Let's just be thankful they were there,' said Trask. They drank coffee in Zek's hotel room (Trask had a And: 'Weather?' small brandy with his), and talked awhile about 'Frozen snow on the ground,' the same researcher everything and nothing, until Zek fell asleep fully replied. 'And according to the Finn weather station at clothed on her bed. Then Trask pulled a cover over her, Kotka, a lot more of it on the way. But just soft, steady put the light off and returned to his easy chair. snow. Maybe we should also be thankful that it's not And when she gave him a shake it was morning ... going to be a blizzard! It's due to start in two hours' 332 esper assistance had arrived from Moscow in the shape of two lesser telepaths and a locator. The latter was a thin- faced, effeminate weasel of a man named Alexei Yefros; VIII Not Quite He]J, Siggi knew him through their work and disliked him and Sheer Hell! intensely. Despite his suspect sexual proclivities (or perhaps because of them) Yefros was a misogynist with an especially ugly sadistic streak. Fully aware of Siggi's telepathic range, still on those several previous occasions when they'd met he had not once attempted to camouflage thoughts which could only be likened to a cesspool. An In the uncomfortable, noisy confines of the jet-copter's admirer and close confidant of Turkur Tzonov, he was passenger cabin, Siggi Dam studiously avoided the ruthless, ambitious, and extremely dangerous. thoughts of her closest travelling companion and Since the arrival of the espers, Tzonov had kept reflected upon the events of the last two days ... himself closeted with them in his makeshift operations Back in Perchorsk, Turkur Tzonov had been coldly suite just off the control room. Siggi had not been privy furious for some thirty-odd hours now. In a way, this had to their conversations, but she did know that Tzonov had suited Siggi well enough; she had been more than spoken at some length to Premier Turchin (or to his satisfied to steer clear of him. But even on the few presidential adviser, at least), and that he'd been given occasions when they had come together accidentally, what amounted to a free hand in the matter of Nathan's she'd not dared to look into his mind. For some reason (as pursuit and recapture - with one important exception. a result of their showdown, perhaps, or something else Tzonov had wanted authority to bring the fugitive back which had happened since their trip out to Little Kozhva dead or alive (preferably dead, as Siggi was well aware), on the snowcat), Tzonov now demanded the same degree but Turchin had insisted that Nathan be taken alive. It of mental privacy as Siggi herself. He would know it if was the human rights issue, of course. Gustav Turchin she attempted to spy on him, and she didn't want to give was still cleaning the political mud of a very messy him any excuse to use similar tactics on her. century off Russia's boots, so that the last thing he wanted Siggi knew how stupid she'd been, and how incredibly now was the blood of an innocent on his hands! fortunate. Stupid in what she had done, and fortunate in The night after Nathan's escape, Siggi had found sleep that she hadn't been found out. But surely Tzonov's impossible. Tossing and turning in her bed for long hours failure to discover her treachery meant that he was stupid at a stretch, only half-sleeping at best, finally she had in his turn, or at the very least blind. The latter was true, given it up for a bad job. Rising well before dawn and she knew. His egomania blinded him, preventing him dressing in her warmest clothing, she'd ventured out into from seeing the truth. But if the time should ever come the grey-misted ravine. There, relieved of Perchorsk's when he did see it. . . claustrophobia and satisfied that In the evening following their return from Kozhva, 335 334 Tzonov and the others were asleep, she'd extended a strange, furtive things in which she was pursued across tentative telepathic probe across the mountains and the ridgy grey landscape of a throbbing, gigantic brain by beyond Kozhva, deep into the woodlands where the black-winged inquisitorial thoughts with the piercing Gypsy caravans had been. eyes, talons, and beaks of carrion crows ... The faint, ethereal dreams of loggers, trappers, and ... And the echoes of their cries (their questions?) were villagers, all were there, but she had searched for still ringing afar when she started awake. So that with something else. And she had found it! Like a spiral of Tzonov and his espers so close, she had wondered: was it mental static from some weird computer mind, briefly perhaps more than just a dream? The invasion of sleeping (but very briefly), she believed that she had touched upon minds would be common enough practice among espers Nathan's sleeping thoughts - only to discover that such as these. And there had been times in Siggi's past someone else was touching them, too! A telepathic mind: when her own duties were such that ... that she no longer feminine, wary, clever, and benevolent. But who? British had the right to complain. E-Branch? To Siggi's knowledge there was only one That morning, yesterday, Tzonov had been up and female telepath in British ESPionage: a spinster called about at first light, and his first act had been to cancel the Millicent Cleary. But she was sure that this wasn't her. search-parties scheduled for duty in the regions to the No, for this one was a woman entire, experienced in every east of the pass. But even as he'd ordered the jet-copter sense of the word. made ready for a mission to the west of the mountains, All of this from a mere touch; it said a lot for Siggi's and sought Siggi out to take her with him, so it had talent, and even more for the talent of the other. For in the started to snow. And heavily. selfsame moment that Siggi had become aware of the The flight had been cancelled, (even a routine ascent stranger, so that one had sensed Siggi ... and not only out of the pass could be hazardous enough without this!) Siggi! which had served to determine Tzonov's mood for the rest Then, made suddenly aware of other talented minds of the day. As for Siggi: she had never been happier to awake and watchful in the night - afraid that they might see bad weather. And the snow had stayed, and stayed. recognize hers — Siggi had withdrawn her thoughts and Not a blizzard but a continuous fall that blanketed the returned quickly to her room. And lying there in the dark, sky, turned the entire pass white, and forbade absolutely with the weight of the mountain once more pressing down any kind of aerial search or reconnai-sance which Tzonov on her (but not nearly as heavily as the weight of her might otherwise contemplate. fears), she'd wondered: As the day had progressed, so Siggi's worries about her But if Turkur is using these people out of Moscow in standing with the Head of Russia's E-Branch had receded this way, why isn't he using me? Was it her punishment somewhat. With every hour that passed, Nathan was for defying him: temporary exclusion from his schemes? getting farther away, and discovery of her own Or would it be more permanent, because he no longer involvement less likely. trusted her? Also, and despite Premier Turchin's orders to the Finally she had slept, but her dreams had been contrary, she knew that if Tzonov did track the fugitive 336 337 down his men would be just as likely to shoot him as take back to her room. The day's events had exhausted her, him prisoner. Later, they would write corroborative and though she was half afraid of sleep still she had no reports to show how he had 'resisted arrest' and they had choice. Mercifully the previous night's dreams (or been obliged to use force. On the other hand Tzonov visitations?) were not recurrent . . . at least, not until might decide it was best if Nathan disappeared altogether, this morning. That was when she'd discovered that presumed 'fled to the West'; in which event his riddled even wide awake, still one may nightmare. body could be dumped into a deep ravine somewhere, The nightmare was this: that the bad weather was and no chance of any blame ever attaching to Turkur clearing and Tzonov anticipated that by 3:00 p.m. the Tzonov. Anything, in order to stop Nathan falling into the jet-copter would be cleared for take-off. He and Yefros 'wrong' hands, to prevent his (in any case doubtful) return had a lead on the fugitive and would search for him to Sunside/Starside, or to exact a measure of vengeance west of Kozhva, and Siggi would accompany them. in repayment for a bruised ego and a few days of intense Yefros would attempt to locate him (there was this embarrassment. But a man's life? It seemed a lot of weird aura about him, something numerical, with which repayment to Siggi. he shielded his mind), and Siggi would home in on She'd tried arguing with herself, tried telling herself Yefros's probe for a more positive identification. This that she too would benefit from Nathan's death (for dead shouldn't prove too difficult for her, for as Tzonov men can't, after all, tell tales). But damn it to hell, she'd delighted in reminding her, she'd already made Nathan's known him however briefly, and been changed by 'acquaintance'... knowing him! She would never be able to erase him -the Now it was 4:00 p.m. and Kozhva lay to the east more innocence of Nathan's mind - from her memory now. She than fifty miles behind them; Tzonov was crammed up wouldn't want to erase it. front with the pilot and co-pilot, and Siggi shared the So yesterday had dragged itself relentlessly by; the sky passenger cabin with Alexei Yefros. His were the thoughts had unloaded its burden, and Siggi's depression had she studiously avoided, and his the probe she could returned to deepen like the snow in the pass . . . sense sweeping out from him like ripples on a pool, or Tzonov had arranged that she have dinner with him and some personal psychic asdic, searching for Nathan's his cronies. Siggi ate very little, kept her thoughts fugitive identity. guarded from start to finish, sensed their hostility generally Yefros was good. Over Kozhva, suddenly he had come and suffered Alexei Yefros's seething, deviantly carnal alive and pointed out of a window in a direction a little glances especially. She could sense the locator's rabid south of west. 'That way! He's there! He throws off weasel mind loathsomely at work behind his glittering equations like a smokescreen, which only serve to give black eyes where they stripped away her clothing, and him away!' she shuddered not so much because he wanted her, but But on Sunside (Siggi had thought), and especially in for the ways in which he would like to use her. Starside, in that largely innumerate world of vampires, Finally, the meal had been over and Siggi could flee such numbers would have cloaked him admirably. The Wamphyri home in on fear, sweat, and blood. Nathan's 338 339 numbers would appear as a screen of mental static to Or a 'red' herring? Siggi had kept the thought to herself. them. A guess, still it fell only a little short of the mark. 'Damn him to hell!' Tzonov had been furious. 'He But here in this world: threw me off the track, at least until you and the others Here it's a traitor (she continued to theorize), a scent got here. But do you see? The alien isn't heading for for the hounds, spoor for the hunter. Leipzig or the Romanian Gate. No, he's heading for Tzonov had been studying his small-scale map, London, England . . . via Izhma! Or at least, he thinks he complaining bitterly about its inaccuracies. But in a is.' moment his eyes had narrowed. Fumbling his way back Then he'd gone up front to speak to the pilot, and Siggi into the passenger cabin, he repeated Yefros: 'West and had been left alone with Yefros. But the locator's mind a little south?' And stabbing a finger at the map. 'You was on his job; as the jet-copter forged west, he probed mean the Luza River, Izhma and Sizyabsko? And after ahead; Siggi was able to relax a little and not worry what that a lot of frozen marshland? Are you sure? But is he he was thinking about when his eyes met hers. For a just running wild? There's nothing there!' while at least... Yefros had glanced at the map, then stared at it, and his weasel eyes had opened wide. 'Izhma!' he'd gasped Fifteen minutes later, Tzonov's shout had reached back then. 'Izhma! The new oil field!' from the cockpit: 'We have another aircraft on our 'Eh?' screens; on the radio, too. Swedish, and the pilot has just 'British and American engineers, Russian workers,' requested permission to land at the Izhma Projekt. He's Yefros had continued. They're opening the place up. landing there, right now!' Big news a year or two ago, it promised riches galore. Siggi had felt things coming to a head. Tzonov was busy; Another fine example of East-West cooperation; like Yefros, too, doing his own thing. She grasped the the French hydro-electric scheme on the Volga. Hah! opportunity of the moment and sent her thoughts speeding Foreign brains and Russian muscle. It makes me sick! ahead. For after all, that was what she was here for, what she But once a goal is achieved, people forget. The day is was supposed to be doing. But now she felt that she must coming when we'll kick all of these bastards out, and confirm or deny Tzonov's suspicions, if only to relieve her then it will all be ours.' own tension. Except there was no relief for he was right: 'British and Amer ...' Tzonov's mouth had fallen open. Nathan was dead ahead. And not only Nathan but also ... 'And they're still there?' 'A locator,' Yefros had shouted. 'Chung! I'd know that 'About all that is there!' Yefros had told him. probe of his anywhere. They're converging, the alien and Then Tzonov's eyes had bulged as he dug a scrap of this British esper dog. Turkur, you're right. That chopper paper from his pocket, balled it in his fist and tossed it is here to lift our quarry out!' aside, and Siggi had supposed it was Trask's Mobius In the cockpit, Tzonov had cursed and snapped a Strip sketch. Confirming her suspicion: 'Ahhh - Trask'1 command at the pilot; vanes tilting forward, the jet-copter Tzonov had snarled. 'Damn the smart bastard! A sprat to had raced west. But too late. catch a mackerel!' 340 341 And if they had been armed? What then? The frontier town of Izhma had blurred by below, and Siggi felt sick. Tzonov wasn't just a radical but radically a series of wooden bridges crossing a frozen river. Then insane, she was sure of that now. She looked out through marsh and forest; and down in the woods, Siggi had her flexon window and watched the Swedish machine spied Gypsy caravans trundling south. But up ahead ... picking up speed, racing west into a lowering sky. And on only two more miles to the Izhma Projekt, its skeletal impulse, opening her mind, she sent after it: derricks already clearly visible on the grey horizon. And Good luck, Nathan. If the Szgany have a god, I'm sure rising up from a smoky huddle of cabins and he will be with you. construction shacks where the black scar of a pipeline All she got back was a whirling confusion of thoughts. sprawled like a dark metal snake in the woods, a No numbers vortex now, for Nathan had other things to powerful jet-copter with Swedish ID, rapidly gaining think about. In his own world a majority of flying things altitude. were creatures to fear, and in this one? For the moment at It had been on the ground for no more than ten to least, he was no less afraid of the jet-copter. She tried fifteen minutes: scarcely time to unload anything, but again, and fired one last deep-penetrating thought: more than enough to take on a passenger. Modern and It's ail right. You'll be safe now. built for speed, the Swede would have no trouble Perhaps Nathan heard her; Siggi would never know outdistancing its dated Russian counterpart. But in any for sure. But feeling a furtive movement behind her -and case, what good would it do to chase it? noticing what she really ought to have noticed a moment Finally the recent past caught up with the present. To ago, before she sent that final thought - the knowledge Siggi . . . it felt so unreal! Things had happened so fast, fell on her like a peal of thunder that someone else had it came as a genuine shock to realize that she was here most certainly heard it! — right here and now, with Tzonov and Yefros — Tzonov's hand closed over hers on the arm of her holding her breath as Nathan escaped for the second chair; his eyes, reflected in the flexon window, bored time. She couldn't be mistaken; she knew he was aboard into hers; his twisted 'smile' was as mad as any she ever the Swedish aircraft. His numbers vortex felt so close it saw, as he whispered in her ear, 'And so he'll be safe, was almost visible in the eye of her mind, swirling like will he? Well yes, I suppose he will. But what odds? For the foreign jet-copter's exhaust as its blades retracted after all, we'll get what we wanted from him. All you've into their housing and its thrusters rotated from the told me so far, and all you've yet to tell me.' vertical to the horizontal. Then: 'But Turkur ...!' she turned to him. 'Are we armed?' That was Tzonov, screaming at the pilot. And the pilot looking at him as though he were 'Ah, no!' He held up a hand, tut-tutted, turned his mad. Of course they weren't armed. This was a military glistening, quivering, furiously grinning face away. 'Say machine, true, but it belonged to E-Branch, not to the nothing, Siggi, not now. Save it for later. I just know Army or Airforce. Its weapon systems had been stripped you're going to have so much more to say later.' on handover. Tzonov must know that, surely? He did, but on this occasion he'd actually wanted to be wrong! 343 342 Almost convulsively, she reached inside her parka, but stuff to strip the mountain naked of trees in a wide Yefros had come over from his side and was jabbing the swath and fill the gap behind Lardis's knoll almost to muzzle of his gun in her ribs under her right breast. 'Oh its brim. But even that had been nothing compared to yes, please do,' he told her sibilantly. 'It would give me a this. great deal of pleasure, I assure you.' The snows of this world seemed to go on forever! Even then, just for a moment, Siggi felt undecided. She And its cold in these northern regions was far worse knew that any pleasure 'it' might give Yefros the sadist than that of Starside in the hours before sunup. Nathan now, would probably be far easier to bear - and over and was hardy, it was true, but without Vladi and his done with a lot more quickly - than what she might Travellers he would never have made it. For all that reasonably anticipate from him in Tzonov's threatened their ancestors had been Wamphyri supplicants (and 'later'. But finally, releasing her breath in a long sigh, she for all that they themselves wouJd be, given the chance), slumped back and shrank down in her seat. Worse was when the parting of the ways had come at last, he knew coming, certainly, but where there's life ... well, maybe he was in their debt. there could be a little hope even now. With the last flurry of snow - where densely-grown Yefros's unpleasantly slim hand was cold and woods offered Nathan cover to the west, while the route of the threatening - and lingering - against her flesh, as he Travellers would take them far south to the temperate regions carefully reached inside her parka, searched, and took her they craved - he and the gnarled Szgany chief had hugged tiny gun from its secret place between her breasts. And and stood off awhile, saying nothing. Then Nathan had the touch of those fingers, however inarticulate, told far felt ill at ease for what small deceptions he'd been obliged to better than words how slim was the element of hope work. But at the last when Vladi reminded him of his vow - to which was all Siggi had left... carry his message of welcome back to the vampire Lords in their own place - then there'd been nothing else for it but to From the moment he escaped from Perchorsk, Nathan had lie again and say that he would. Beneath the pines the been a fugitive, but for the last thirty-six hours -ever since ground was mainly clear. Avoiding the occasional drift, Zek Foener contacted him with her instructions - he'd Nathan had headed west until the trees petered out and never been more aware of it. For he, too, had sensed the gave way to frozen marsh. By then the spindly derricks of other intelligences which homed-in on her probe; he'd the Izhma Projekt had been visible, and a strange dull guessed their source and had known they would come thunder in the sky clearly audible. He had watched in after him. awe and not a little fear as a flying machine came down The snow had saved him. He'd seen snow before, albeit through the clouds like some giant mosquito, settling infrequently, on those rare occasions when the barrier towards the huddle of buildings. And because his mountains turned white and even Sunside was bitterly attention was riveted to it, Nathan had recognized the cold through its long, dangerous nights. Twice as a child aircraft as the source of yet another mental probe which, he'd seen it, and once as a youth, when an avalanche had while it was not telepathic, nevertheless served to confirm brought down ten thousand tons of the his location. 344 345 Shortly, as he struggled through a deep drift out in little from Trask, by matching his words to his mind- the open, a snowcat had come skimming, and this time pictures; but right now in your mind there's only a the source of the probe was riding pillion. David Chung jumble of words. Most of them seem automatic - had helped Nathan up behind him; the cat had turned in instinctive? - and pretty meaningless. They don't much a circle, sending crisp snow flying; in something less match up with anything. This is nothing new. They are than two minutes the fugitive found himself bundled curses!' aboard the jet-copter, which took off without delay. 'Shit!' Chung said out loud, and then apologized. That had been a little more than seventy-five minutes 'No, I am the one who should ... apologize?' Nathan and seven hundred miles ago; now, crossing the Finnish was still learning after all. 'It's unseemly to look into border west of Lubosalma, Chung breathed easily for another man's mind unbidden.' the first time in what felt like ... oh, about three hours. 'You'll do okay in E-Branch,' Chung nodded, returning Re-filling his lungs just as gladly, he let himself relax a his grin. 'In any case, you can look all you want. There's little. nothing in there I'm ashamed of. And if it will help you The passenger cabin was fairly spacious, and even to get it all together - I mean, to understand ..." more so in that only Nathan, Chung and the three-man 'It will.' crew were aboard. Trask was waiting in Helsinki where '... Then be my guest. Listen, you'll be debriefed -that he'd been seeing to documentation and return travel is, my people will ask you plenty of questions - in arrangements to London. Now, as Nathan wolfed London; I mean back home, where we're going. But sandwiches and drank coffee, Chung thought it might be until we pick up Trask en route, I'm at your command. as well to get a relationship going. Lighting a cigarette, Any way I can help, if there's anything you want to he said, 'Zek Foener says you won't find it too hard to know about us, about this world, you just fire away ... I understand me. Languages come easy to you. I know mean, by all means ask questions.' Despite Nathan's you've already spoken to Ben Trask, but most of that talent and intelligence, obviously it wasn't going to be was telepathic. Anyway, my name is David Chung.' He plain sailing. held out his right hand, and when Nathan went to clasp They had maybe forty minutes to Helsinki, and Nathan his forearm corrected him and showed him a put all of them to good use ... handshake. That's how we do it here.' Nathan at once showed him the Traveller way. 'And They flew in a Sabena jet, executive-class, from Helsinki that's how we do it on Sunside. Not a lot of difference, is to Stockholm, and transferred to a British Airways there?' jumbo for the flight into London. Nathan was agog at It stopped Chung dead in his tracks, and Nathan the size of both airplanes, especially the latter, and at knew it. The most the locator had said to him so far their speed. In-flight, he was fascinated by the food, had been when he spoke his name as he helped him clothing, hand-luggage (wrist-watches, pens, books, aboard the snowcat. Grinning at Chung's expression, cigarette lighters!) of the other passengers; also by the he said, 'Zek Foener is right, as you see. I learned a 346 347 toilets, the motion picture, headphones, periodic safe house in Slough, whose 'caretakers' were Special announcements; the provision of drinks, hot food; the Branch heavies and experts in close protection. From view from the windows, everything. Trask had found now on he would also be in the care of E-Branch agents clothes for him in Helsinki, so that he didn't look out of who would live at the house when he was in residence, place. Still, his natural curiosity was that of a child, never straying more than a thought away. Except he which would have been out of place but for Trask's shouldn't expect to be spending too much time there; the continuous cautioning. Finally, half-way to London from safe house was a bolt-hole, nothing more. Stockholm, he settled down and asked Trask to tell him During this first visit, Nathan took a bath, shaved, had about his father. his hair tidied up; he was equipped with a reasonable As Head of E-Branch, Trask was well equipped for wardrobe, supplied with money and extra documentation. that. Keeping his voice low and starting at the very Then, to give him something of a background at least, beginning, he detailed what he knew of Harry Keogh's pictures were taken of him laughing, with his arms round boyhood up until the time he joined forces with the a girl he'd never met before and would never see again, Branch. Occasionally Nathan would ask a question, but and two small children at his feet. The photographs were when he stopped Trask glanced at him out of the corner placed in a leather wallet together with credit cards that of his eye, and smiled. wouldn't work and other bits and pieces of false It said a great deal for Nathan's new friends: that he felt identification and 'authentication', and a wafer-slim he could sleep, and safely, in their company ... calculator powered by light. (Later, en route to E-Branch HQ, David Chung explained the latter's functions; it took Trask shook him awake just before they landed at Nathan only a moment or two to recognize Ethloi of the Heathrow. The lights had been on in Stockholm when Thyre's 'tens system' and learn the values of the alien they took off, but now it was full night. Nathan simply characters. From which time forward the calculator would couldn't believe the size of the city as seen from the air, be his pride and joy.) and as for its illuminations ... At E-Branch HQ the hour was too late for 'The hell-lands,' he murmured, half to himself. introductions; Nathan was taken to a room of his own and Trask heard him, and asked: 'Do you really think so?' almost fell into a bed where he could sleep long, soundly, Nathan looked at him wide-eyed. 'No,' he said after a safely. Under normal circumstances there would only be moment's pause. 'Not with you people for denizens. Not one Duty Officer. Tonight, and for however long it took, quite hell, anyway.' there would be four; and, in the hotel down below, a trio Suddenly Trask's head was full of memories. 'It might of Special Branch plain-clothes officers who now had have been,' he said, 'if not for your father.' Then, less something extra to think about in addition to discreetly seriously: 'And maybe it still is. Save it till you've seen tailing and minding Zek Foener. the traffic!' But in E-Branch itself while Nathan slept, the four The Minister Responsible was there to whisk them through customs; Nathan was taken to an E-Branch 348 349 Duty Officers continued to work steadily through the to work. The effect of that had been to put her back to night, preparing his programme. For tomorrow Nathan sleep; her body, at least. Following which ... they'd been would start school. He would learn, the Branch would in such a hurry that they hadn't even paused to close her learn; hopefully both would benefit. As Trask had already eyes. And denied all physical command over her limbs, made plain, however, their aim wasn't to extract thrown across Krasin's powerful shoulders, Siggi had information - not specifically - but to impart it. It was for seen, heard, or otherwise sensed the rest as if it were Nathan, and also for the memory of his father, Harry happening under water, through the liquid lens of some Keogh. Only a handful of men had ever known him, and sickly churning submarine kaleidoscope: even fewer had known him as the Necroscope. But an Corridor walls flowing by like waves in the apparently entire world was in his debt, or even two worlds, and in slow-motion jolt ... ;'oJt ... j'oJt of Krasin's stride; curved many ways he'd had a raw deal in both of them. This steel wall panels reflecting the ghastly flicker of faulty or would be reparation in part, at least... shorting neons; an inverted descent through the magmass levels to the core, where the usual knot of technicians In the small hours of the night, in Perchorsk under the and scientists was nowhere in evidence, for Tzonov had Urals, Siggi Dam had likewise been called upon to make either dismissed them or sent them on some clever wild- repayment. But in her case Turkur Tzonov was the one to goose chase. Another descent, down steel ladders in the whom account must be made, and Siggi was bankrupt. curved wall of the core and under the white bulge of the Moreover, this time the aim was most definitely to extract sphere Gate itself, to a place where Tzonov opened the information - and permanently. cover on a magmass worm-hole. He and Yefros sliding Siggi had been awakened in the quietest of all hours, at feet-first into an alien darkness; and Siggi with a rope 2:30 a.m., by the squeal of her door opening after a round her ankles, hauled along behind and gliding in the skeleton key had been turned in its lock. And still smooth bore like some slow toboggan; Krasin bringing believing that this couldn't possibly be happening -that up the rear, pushing on her shoulders where he followed she must be nightmaring - she had sat up in her bed and head-first. watched Tzonov, Staff-Sergeant Bruno Krasin, and This was where Tzonov had relocated his arsenal: Alexei Yefros quickly enter the room and move to her down in these warped nightmare regions where - for the bedside. Numb and only half-awake, blinking her eyes in sake of human sanity - no one ever went these days. the sudden light, perhaps she'd had just enough time to Whole sections had been abandoned ever since the time cringe back from them, moisten her lips, and say, 'What?' of the original Perchorsk Incident; they had been opened before Tzonov covered her mouth and Krasin held her up, briefly, following Harry Keogh's escape to Starside; motionless, while Yefros slid a needle into her arm. now they were closed again and would stay that way . . . That last had woken her up, certainly, when but for to anyone but a madman and his followers. Tzonov's hand clamping her mouth she would have Dim lighting flickering into being, and Tzonov and screamed. But only for a moment, until the drug began Yefros holding Siggi erect, head lolling, until Krasin 350 351 F could take her from them. Then more jolting motion, and into Turkur Tzonov's magnetic, malignant grey eyes, hideous magmass cysts, molds, and other ... anomalies which peered into and through hers as if they were empty flpwing past her frozen field of vision, until they reached holes in her head. - Until now everything had seemed, what, impersonal? - The room. Yes, that was the right word, so much so that it was The room of the machine. almost as if it were happening to someone else. On their It was then that Siggi had wished she were dead. But part impersonal, anyway. Siggi was so helpless, they only her body was dead, and then only temporarily. That could have done anything to her, used her however they could easily change, of course, could easily become would; but except for what they planned, so far they'd permanent. It all depended on how much Tzonov wanted, done nothing. Now, however, all of that had changed. on how much he intended to leave her. If anything. Her Now it came down to Siggi and Tzonov, which made it death wish of a moment ago was forgotten; as they very personal indeed. strapped her to the table, she no longer desired to die but She wanted to curse him - which he knew, of course - to live! To live and talk and tell them everything! And she but could only plead. She shouted with her mind, when would, only too gladly, without all of this. If only they all it required was a whisper. She offered to tell him would listen, and if only she could speak. everything, right now, here, immediately. She was a 'She's drooling,' Krasin said, oddly disgusted. foolish woman, she knew, and weak. She'd wronged him, Trying to talk, perhaps?' This was Yefros, his voice a and now promised to put it right. From this time forward, trembling, excited whisper. And now, but much too late, she would swear eternal faith to Tzonov, his cause. She Siggi remembered something else about the sadistic deserved to be used, abused, and discarded. He could locator: that he was an Operator, one of the few men who shame her, trample her under, take all she had been or was qualified to perform what was euphemistically was now to mould to his own design or ruin forever. known as 'an operation'. Physical ruin, yes, but not ... not ... not her memories ... Siggi put every ounce of non-existent strength into one not her mind! Let her keep that at least. For that was what last twitch of effort - to follow Yefros's movements - and made her Siggi Dam. her head flopped loosely to one side. The locator was The dome of Tzonov's skull gleamed shiny damp; as he moving obscene equipment into position, donning a shook his head in a negative response, droplets of sweat surgical gown and pulling on rubber gloves. There gathered and rolled round the orbits of his eyes to drip wouldn't be very much blood, but... Yefros was fastidious from his nose. His features, so perfectly balanced, were in matters such as this. Siggi screamed, but silently of scarcely human; Siggi saw that clearly now. And his ego course. The merest gurgle. was likewise unstable. Capable of withstanding a slap, it Then a strong hand took her chin and turned her head could never take a full-blooded punch. And she had the other way, and she felt rubber-sheathed brackets delivered a hammerblow! Since when there had been only clamped into position in the hollows of her cheeks, to one course Tzonov could take. And now he would take hold her head steady. She looked straight up, straight his revenge. 353 352 'Ah, Siggi, Siggi,' he said, shaking his head again and good at that; it might even keep her alive a while, in Star- smiling, however mockingly. 'Trusting you was a side!' mistake, and you know how I hate mistakes. But in And then, scoring her soul like a blunt drill, his laugh! setting Nathan free, you placed yourself in bondage. Oh, Above all else, even if she remembered nothing else, he has escaped to a new world - for the moment, at least Siggi knew she would always remember that. Tzonov's -but you? How should I deal with you? By trusting you laugh: cruel, malevolent, vindictive. It would ring in the again, when your treachery is proven? Or should I let achingly empty corridors of her mind forever. your punishment fit the crime? For there would be a Following which, darkness. For that was when they wonderful irony in that, don't you see? Nathan goes free, switched on the power, and began down-loading her brain an "innocent" in an alien world, and I control the door, ... the Gate, into just such a place. The only difference appears to be that you ... that you are not innocent. Not yet. But we can change that...' She saw his meaning, and in a moment the numbness of her limbs was matched only by that of her mind. Her brain froze, but not so much that she couldn't feel or at least sense the iciness of the sterile needle probes that slid into her ears through flesh and cartilage. Then Tzonov took a helmet that trailed a multitude of rainbow wires, the receiver, and let her watch him place it on his head. And still smiling his awful smile, his face slowly withdrew from her line of vision. Someone's thumbs came into view, and closed her eyes as if she were already dead. Then, before the power was switched on, she heard Yefros say: 'It's much like a computer. We don't have to delete it all. Let's start at the beginning. Her birth?' And Tzonov's answer. 'Let her keep it. We all need to know we were born. It's part of the will to survive. I want her to have that, at least. Without it, she'd be nothing but a bag of plasma. No, she must have something of will, for I want her to run, hide, and to be afraid. I want her to be even more afraid than she is now! As for her childhood: most of that can go. But her sexual awakenings, she should keep them. Siggi was 354 PART FOUR The Rest of Nestor's Story I Nestor, Necromancer! Hunting on Sunside Two years earlier in time, and an entire dimension away in parallel space: The vampire Lord Nestor's first lieutenant, called Zahar (once Zahar Sucksthrall), coaxed all speed from his small and singularly burdened mount and headed for the barrier mountains. His mission was of the greatest possible urgency, for even now the sun was rising up beyond the gold-tipped crags, slowly but surely climbing to the highest point in its low but deadly arc. Deadly to all vampires, to the Wamphyri themselves, and certainly to their lieutenants. Already sunlight came spilling through several of the high passes, glancing from the tallest peaks, permeating Starside's gloomy upper atmosphere and banishing the stars; except those that burned over the Icelands far to the north. On high, even the sinister Northstar, motionless where it stood at its zenith over Wrathstack the last aerie, was little more than a glimmer now. And when the sun was at its highest, shining on Wrathspire itself, then the Northstar would fade entirely from view. By then Zahar must be on his way back, or better still already back, safe within Suckscar's massive walls and halls and labyrinthine ways. Oh, he would come to no harm so long as he kept himself and his mount out 359 of the sun's lethal glare, but the knowledge itself - that setting the peaks ablaze, staining the saddle a poisonous spears of sunlight would soon stab through the mists of yellow as the sun, as yet unseen, swung slowly east. Starside to sear on Wratha's turrets and spires -was And Zahar knew that if he did see that fiery orb, then he sufficient to speed him on his way. For when the sun is would see no more. It was time to be gone. risen, the Wamphyri and theirs are cowards all. And if Again the feeling came that someone or something they were not, then they would be dead. Just as the observed him, but this time in his haste Zahar ignored it 'Lady' Carmen would soon be dead. But the true death, and ran back to his flyer. A moment more and he'd not undeath. launched . . . a gentle glide, down and out over the And so Zahar shivered as he landed in a writhing boulder plains. But behind him he could almost hear ground mist, bundled Carmen down from the flyer's the sun's golden claws scrabbling on the rocks, and feel back, tossed her over his shoulder and climbed a scree- the yellow beast's breath turning the air to acid. And his littered saddle between spurs; until at the top he saw the terror of burning was so great that he never once southern rim aglimmer with yellow fire, but not yet glanced back but sat hunched in the saddle, eyes staring awash in it. And pegging her out on a mound of stony straight ahead, as he sped like an arrow for Wrathstack. earth - hammering in the ironwood pegs left-handed, for While behind him, between the spurs where the rim his right hand and arm were still painful from the of sunlight crept ever closer to Carmen's feet, and the process of metamorphic healing, which as yet was far vampire stuff in her finally recognized the peril and from complete - and making fast her wrists and ankles brought her starting, then screaming awake from with strips of tough leather, he shivered again and even undeath to sure death - jerked to his feet on two occasions, turning in a - Something other than sunlight came creeping, like a complete circle and gazing all about. For it had seemed shadow from the shadows of the crags! A thing in a to him that while he worked, someone had watched: a cloak and mask of cloth, with holes cut for its yellow- sensation he'd known often enough before, but only flaring eyes. A thing that took up a rock and broke the when Vasagi the Suck was alive. ironwood pegs, helped Carmen up and led her Vasagi: master of mime, metamorphism, and telepathy staggering, sobbing from the sun's sighing encroachment. alike. Except the Suck was dead now, and Nestor the And up over the dark rim of the saddle the thing led new Lord of Suckscar ... yet still Zahar shivered. her, and down a scree slope into the permanent Perhaps he sensed the uneasy vampire spirit of his old darkness and safety of a north-facing crevice in the rocks. master — Vasagi's ghost, as it were — wandering As they went, so she cried out: 'What ...? Who ...?' restlessly abroad in the mountains, waiting fearfully for For as yet she was like a lost child, with little or no the sun, doomed for eternity to steam into mist with understanding of her whereabouts and circumstances, each recurrent sunup yet to come . .. except that she was a changeling whose change -whose Finally Zahar was done and the undead corpse of very existence - had almost been terminated. Carmen all tied down, and not a moment to spare. But the one in the cloak and mask merely hushed her Golden fire was creeping on the south-facing crags, 360 361 and replied: Quiet, now, Carmen, all is not lost. As was Time had passed since Nestor's ascension - six months, my /ate, so is yours. Yet we have both escaped it. We are then nine - and the might-have-been 'Lady' Carmen was banished now, for the moment, and sent out of our all but forgotten. But the young Lord Nestor's awful rightful places. But still we're ah've, you and I; we'll Jive talent, which he had discovered through her, was not. on and grow strong, and one day return. We'/J return /or Despite that it repulsed him, it also fascinated him, so our revenge, which will be sweet, I promise you! Trust that he was driven to experiment. For he was a me. I know the way. necromancer with the power to question the dead, and And gasping, clutching her terror-parched throat, he was the only one in all Wrathstack who could do it. It fainting in his arms in the darkness of their refuge, she made him equal, perhaps even superior, to the rest of knew that it was true, that if anyone knew the way it was them. this one whom she had thought dead and gone. But they all had their various quirks and talents, if Oh, she had been glad enough then that he was no 'talent' may adequately describe Wamphyri mutations, more, that the handsome Lord Nestor had come to take anomalies, and aberrations. Wran with his rages, which his place. But not as glad as she was now that he was gave him the strength of three; his brother Spiro, who back, not when it meant life to her. Both glad and constantly practised to achieve his father's killing eye, terrified at one and the same time. For despite an awful, though with no noticeable success so far; Gorvi, whose hideous alteration, she could not deny but that this was guile was such that he would even cheat himself, if that her old master. She'd guessed it as soon as she heard his were at all possible. And of course the Lady Wratha mental voice, and now knew it definitely as he took off with her mentalism and mind-cloaking technique, so his mask and tossed it down. that she was able to read the thoughts of the others while But his face! His mangled, maniac /ace! yet keeping her own to herself - mainly. Even the dog- And then she knew no more, for a while at least... Lord, with his lycanthropy, which made him look even more like some monstrous wolf when he went off hunting All of which lay two long years in the past, and only part on Sunside. of it known to Nestor (and then erroneously) where he Yet Nestor's talent was ... different. lay healing and dreaming under the bank of the river in Word of it got out (this was hardly surprising; Wratha Sunside. had spies everywhere, in all of the manses), and within And as his metamorphic vampire flesh expelled the a year everyone in Wrathstack knew that Nestor was a last few silver pellets of Szgany shot and the last drop of necromancer. Meanwhile, Canker Canison had become a yellow pus, and the small wounds knitted over, so his frequent visitor to Suckscar, and his and Nestor's dreams switched from the vacant meanderings of friendship had developed. subconscious psyche to a more positive theme, when he 'Useful, is it, this weird talent of yours?' Canker lived again the life he'd known in Suckscar in his early growled one evening, when at last the sun was off the days as Nestor of the Wamphyri... peaks. 'It probably will be,' Nestor answered. 362 363 end to what was left in me of pity. And it was only then They were sitting in one of Nestor's private rooms, a that I became Wamphyri in the fullest sense. For in our place that looked south to the barrier range. He liked to hearts we are cold creatures, Canker, and I was not cold - sit here at this hour, watching the peaks turn from gold not completely - until then.' to grey. He would even sit here in the predawn hours, 'We're not so cold,' Canker argued. 'Indeed, we can be and witness the reverse. But on those occasions, long hot as a furnace at times! But we know how to do what before the first true rays came stabbing through, then the must be done, and that without a deal of fuss. We are curtains would be drawn and Nestor gone off to other, survivors, Nestor!' safer places. 'Without emotion, feeling, purpose? What use to 'But just exactly how do you use it?' Canker was survive as a piece of stone?' curious. 'How are you using it now, I mean?' This is your leech arguing,' Canker coughed. 'It can Nestor shrugged. 'At present, I merely ... experiment.' only be. You are playing word games, and your parasite 'You talk to dead men? And did it happen just like directs their course. For as you must know by now, when that? Suddenly you could talk to them?' the mood is on us we argue just for the sake of it, like 'Ah ... no,' Nestor answered. The first time, one of the now. But emotionless? Purposeless? The Wamphyri? Is dead talked to me. Except she was undead. Since when that what you're saying? Then you don't know the half of ... well, the dead would not speak to me at all, if they had it! But I believe I do know what's wrong with you, my a choice.' lad! Why, you haven't given yourself a chance! You 'She was undead, you say?' Canker frowned and his think you've seen it all. "And is that all there is to it?" red eyebrows crushed together over his snout. 'Then how you ask? "To slake my thirst on blood forever and a day, could you be certain of your talent? The undead are not and grow no older or wiser but live like some bloated truly dead.' leech in a pool?" Aha! But Canker has the answer.' This was a thrall,' Nestor replied. 'She was a mere 'We were talking about necromancy,' Nestor sighed. vampire, not yet Wamphyri. At the time . . . I was 'Not my malaise.' inexperienced and had taken too much from her. But 'Malaise, aye,' the dog-Lord barked. The very word! even so she would only become Wamphyri if I allowed it, But you were morbid enough before, and now this which I did not. She had no mentalism as such, or should necromancy? What, to talk to dead things? Huh/ I see no not have had it, and yet she spoke to me in my mind. She sense in it. What can they tell you anyway? How to was dead, Canker, but when I touched her she knew me survive? No, for they failed to survive. How to make and named me for her murderer! In which she was merry? No, for they have lost the art of laughter. How to correct, of course, for I could not suffer her to live.' love - or lust? What, with parts all rotted away? Now tell 'And after that?' me, what do you get from it? And if the answer is 'I had her destroyed: scorched at sunup on the high nothing, then I say let the dead alone and instead learn crags, which put an end to her. What's more, it put an how to live!' 364 365 'Eh?' 'You won't learn anything from it. What I do is not 'What do I get from it?' mentalism, not as you know it. You'll be able to hear 'What can they tell you that you don't already know? me talking to them if I ask my questions out loud, For after all you've outlived them, haven't you?' certainly, but you'll never hear their answers. These are Nestor slowly shook his head and said, 'But it isn't dead minds, Canker!' like that. Now listen, and I'll try to tell you. The last 'Very well ...' The other gave a shrug, pretended to time I was on Sunside, after the raid, I sensed the understand. 'But at least I'll see you . . . at work, eh?' freshly dead trembling where they lay. What's more, I 'Oh?' Nestor looked sideways at him. 'And who's the sensed that the ancient dead - who had passed on years morbid one now, Canker?' before - were trembling, too. And all of them knowing 'Morbid? Never! Eager for new experiences — always! me and going in fear of me.' Except ... tell me this: how may one torture a dead, 'But of what do they go in fear?' Canker flapped his unfeeling man?' great hands. That is my art,' Nestor answered. 'When I touch them, 'In fear of my art.' they do feel it. They hear my words, which no one else To talk to them?' can hear, not even my lieutenants; they feel my hands Nestor looked away. 'To torture them ...' on them, the tearing of my nails; they know my threats 'Eh?' Canker sat up straighter. are real. And as for what they tell me ...' 'The dead don't talk to me of their own free will,' 'Ah! The crux of the matter,' Canker cried. 'Well, Nestor explained at last. They have to be made to do it.' then, what do they tell you?' 'You make them talk to you?' 'Listen,' said Nestor, 'for there's that which you should 'It is my . . . my art, yes.' know. Death ... isn't like that.' His voice was suddenly 'By torturing them?' Canker goggled. faraway, dreamy. 'Ever since that first time, yes. But don't you see? 'Eh? Not like what?' Carmen couldn't have talked to me at all, if I wasn't a 'Not like you think. You think that death's the end, necromancer.' but it isn't. They go on.' 'Carmen?' The dead go on?' Canker gave a snort. 'Hell, no! They That was her name. One of the girls that the Kill- go down in the ground, or onto a funeral pyre, or into glance brothers tried to steal away that time. Surely you the grinders for the provisioning. On Sunside they even remember? Better for her if they had! Since when the go to waste, but that's as far as they go. And here in the dead have avoided me, but they can't avoid my art.' last aerie there's no waste at all. If that's what you Canker sprang erect. 'I have to see it for myself! On meant by going on, then I have to agree. They go on in Sunside, yes, in just a few hours' time. We'll hunt together, the bellies of our beasts, to fuel them in the flying and and afterwards ... you can show me how it's done.' the fighting!' 'I can show you it, certainly, but not how it's done,' 'You are talking about their bodies,' Nestor replied, Nestor told him. 367 366 But how can he learn anything once he's dead? I mean, his voice becoming firm again. 'But I'm talking about from whom may he learn it?' their minds. Their minds go on, Canker. And so for as 'Ah!' said Nestor. 'And that is something else that long as there's something of body left to touch and fascinates me. For just as we communicate with each torture, and mind which I may speak to, I can other, so do the dead converse. They talk to each other in communicate with them. The Grand Inquisitor, who their graves and resting places, and their thoughts go out overcomes Death Himself!' to all the dead without any man ever knowing or even Canker scowled, sniffed like the great red hound he suspecting them — except me. For I am a necromancer. But was, shook his head. 'But again I say, what use to -' when they know I'm near, then they fall silent, for they '- I'll tell you what use,' Nestor cut him off. 'What a fear my art. And they stay silent, until I touch them...' man did in life, he continues to do when he's dead. Not Nestor's voice had sunk so low and turned so cold that physically but in his mind! The lover loves, not with his Canker shivered ... then gave himself a shake. 'But you wasted lich body, no, but in his mind! And he dreams of must demonstrate! Tonight, on Sunside. We hunt all the ways he never loved, even though it's too late to together, agreed?' try them. And the builder? Why, he continues to build, 'As you will,' answered Nestor. not of stone or stick or sod but airy thoughts! And he 'And so you're loathed by liches, eh?' Canker scratched dreams of excellent houses and cities which can never be at his too-long jaw. 'Which is enough in itself to earn you built, because no one knows what's in his dead mind. And a name.' what of the thinkers who look outward to the stars and 'A name? But I already have a name.' wonder? Now they have been given a gift of time, with 'Pah! Nestor? What is that for a name? Good for a first nothing to do but study the wheeling of the spheres, and name, aye. But as for your second - Lichloathe! That's it: dream of other suns and worlds beyond this one. Then the necromancer Lord Nestor Lichloathe, of Lichscar!' there are the hunters and weapon-makers. They hunt still, 'No!' said Nestor at once. 'I mean, yes to the giving of and forge their weapons as of old. They devise new traps names, but no to changing them. For I'm used to Suck- for the beasts of the wild, superior in every way to the scar now. Let it suffice.' ones we use. And the weapons in their mental workshops 'So be it.' Canker shrugged. 'Now I get me down into are keener far, while ours are often blunt, clumsy, and Mangemanse to work on my instrument. Several hours to turn to rust too quickly.' Nestor paused, and in a moment go, I think, before we'll need to prepare for the raid. Then continued: it's off to Sunside, where with any luck I'll witness this 'And you ask what use? Very well, I'll tell you what weird wonder that you work. Except, before I go . . . " use. Whatever a man was or did in life - whatever secrets 'Yes?' he knew then, and anything he's learned since, from the 'Earlier you mentioned your malaise.' Canker seemed teeming dead; whatever new thoughts he has thought, or anxious. He was genuinely fond of Nestor. ancient schemes he's schemed - I can know it all, by means of my art!' Canker was astonished. 'Whatever he's learned since? 368 369 Nestor's turn to shrug. 'I played a word game. It meant 'Oh - hah-ha!' Canker capered wildly, threw back his nothing.' head and laughed. 'And have I disturbed you, then? 'No,' said Canker. 'Everything means something. Now Good, excellent! Not so good that I have ruined your tell me: are you getting enough of women?' sleep - no, of course not, never that - but wonderful if I've There are lovely girl thralls in my manse, yes,' Nestor managed to disturb the rest of them. It's my image, you answered. see. For I'm a madman and mischiefmaker. We have to 'And how do you feed yourself?' keep up appearances.' 'The same as you. I don't like it red so much, except Nestor managed a grin. 'Well then, away with you and for when I drink on Sunside. Apart from that I have good practise. Later we'll fly out and do a little raiding on meat and wine, and occasionally a little fruit.' Sunside - but just the two of us, for as yet I'm jealous of 'And blood? Only on Sunside? You don't use your this talent of mine and guard it well. And later, we'll seek thralls? But you should, Nestor, you should! For what out some old Szgany burial place, where you shall see are they after all but vessels? And never forget: the blood what you shall see.' is the life!' 'Agreed!' Canker yelped, as Nestor patted him fondly 'When I sleep, then I drink . .. occasionally.' on his furred and sloping back. And then the necromancer 'But carefully, eh? That Carmen incident taught you a saw him out of Suckscar, accompanying the dog-Lord lesson, it seems.' until at the last he loped out of sight, down and around 'Perhaps it did,' said Nestor. the spiralling stairwell that descended into Mangemanse. 'Huh!' the dog-Lord grunted. Then what is this But as soon as Canker was gone - malaise? Do you know its source?' - Nestor returned to his brooding, to his ... malaise? 'No,' Nestor lied ... And indeed he knew its source. Somewhere in the world - ... And feeling Canker's thoughts nibbling at his own, far away, perhaps, but there nevertheless - his olden he changed the subject. 'So tell me, my friend, how goes it enemy out of Sunside lived on. That was the source of his with your moon music? A whole year gone by, and still disquiet. He knew that his enemy was alive just as surely you're hard at it.' as he recognized the pattern of the numbers vortex Canker was distracted from his own line of questioning. swirling in his head, that whirlwind rush of metaphysical 'My music? My instrument? Hard at it? Too true! This symbols which was his enemy's cloaking device, with music is no easy thing. But it comes, it comes. Have you which he kept his secret mind shielded. It rarely bothered not heard me, in the sunup when the others are fast Nestor in the dark of night, when he was up and asleep? Surely you recognized the tune you gave me?' prowling, or hunting on Sunside, or running Suckscar to 'I've heard you,' Nestor nodded wryly, 'and I've no his own design; but during the fear-fraught hours of doubt that Wratha and the others have, too, when we seething sunlight on the barrier mountains, when should have been asleep! As for knowing your tune: I Wrathstack slept and the furnace sun's bright and lethal knew it, vaguely.' rays burned on the Lady Wratha's highest turrets and towers - then he felt it. 370 371 their steam rising up from a bed made sodden by their At first it would be in his dreams, which in themselves juices . .. were a swirl of misty unmemory, or half-memory, of things he really did not wish to remember; but coming That same sundown, an hour after the sun's true setting awake and as his dreams faded to wraiths, still the hated — when the ethereal fan of pink and golden spokes numbers vortex would linger on. Faint, ah, faint, but real which was its aftermath wheeled in the sky over Sun-side for all that. And lying awake in his bed with his sleeping and melted to an amethyst glow, and the night crept in, vampire women, as the cold sweat beaded his flesh and and stars clustered like nuggets of ice frozen in their his nerves jangled with each smallest creak of a baffle or eternal configurations, and the Icelands aurora fluttered wailing of wind beyond his windows, then he would its banners across all the northern skies -then the know that his olden enemy lived on. Moreover, he also Wamphyri flew to Sunside. Not only Nestor Lichloathe knew that while for the moment that enemy was far and Canker Canison, but all of them. removed, one day he would surely return . . . Taking their senior men with them and leaving lesser In a way he dreaded that day, without knowing why, lieutenants and thralls in charge of their manses, they set but in another way he longed for it. For he would never out from Wrathstack to raid on the Szgany. They left in be free of the numbers vortex until he was free of his the space of the same hour but in small parties, not en enemy, who and whatever he was. masse; the time lay well in the past when they had But that was only one source of Nestor's malaise, and worked as a single unit under Wratha. the truth of it was that there was another. A need - a gap, Nor were their parties uniform: the Guile's lot flew a void in his existence — which required filling. For south and a little east, and was composed of Gorvi Canker had been partly right to question him about himself, three lieutenants and two small aerial warriors. women. But there was a certain woman he had not The Killglance brothers headed due south, and took only questioned him about, because he had not known. Only their chief lieutenants along with them; they would seek Nestor himself knew, and he was loath to admit it. For their prey in roughly the same area where Wran and after all, she'd made a fool of him once already. Vasagi the Suck had fought their unequal duel. And the And yet . . . in his dreams, all too frequently, she Lady Wratha flew westwards with only two of her men, seemed to call to him, and he felt her lure even in his and used the glaring hell-lands Gate as her marker where waking hours; so that occasionally, musing, he would she sped for the soaring spires and plateaus which were find himself (if only in his mind, in the eye of his her favourite vantage points, from which she would memory) up there again on Wrathspire's roof, his lips on choose her target. hers and her breast in his hand. As for Canker and Nestor: they made for the great pass A malaise? No, it was the lingering after-images of a little to the east of the hemisphere Gate, a dogleg gorge dreams such as these that distracted him. The conflict of that split the barrier mountains to their roots, passing his desires. On the one hand, revenge on his enemy. And north to south right through them. If they were fortunate on the other, Wratha the Risen: the thought of enough to recruit a handful of thralls beyond 373 372 the pass, then their victims would find it an easy route to Nestor nodded and answered grimly, 'Indeed, for it's follow home to the last aerie. the getting there that counts.' And gliding on a tail-wind, they conversed as they 'Right!' Canker howled. 'And without new blood - went: among the Wamphyri, I mean - we'd all stagnate and An even, two-way split, Canker grunted in Nestor's become doddering old cripples like the lot we left behind mind. We work together and share the spoils equally. in Turgosheim.' Of course. The other agreed, but with this rider: And if 'You must tell me about them some time,' Nestor there are women, we split them equally, too. answered. 'The full story. But for now ... let's keep the Split them? Indeed I will! the dog-Lord laughed noise down. A few more miles and we're through the obscenely for a moment, then sobered. But yes, I pass, so from here on in silence is the order of the day.' understand, and I'm more than pleased with that As you will. Canker fell silent a moment. Until: Ah! arrangement. Damn, I have a few too many bitches in But can't you just smell 'em from here, Nestor? Szgany! Mangemanse already! And when I'm away, like now, all Meat on the hoof - sweet blood, hot and surging -young they can do is squabble. They fight for my affections, breasts and buttocks and cunt galore! Me? Why, I'll risk Nestor. the odd crossbow bolt any old time, to fire a few shots Nestor doubted it but said nothing. More likely Canker's from my own weapon. women fought to determine who would stay out of his Your 'image'? Nestor's sarcasm dripped, but Canker bed! (This was a thought which the necromancer kept to chose to ignore it. himself.) But forget Mangemanse, for the fact of it was No lad, not this time, he answered. Not my image but that Suckscar did go a little short on women, and Nestor my lust. I want to be into a fresh, untainted woman. Or had lieutenants and thralls other than himself to several! consider. For if a man is not happy he will scheme and You're a lech, said Nestor, but without malice. A plot, eventually get himself in serious, even terminal satyr. trouble, and so deplete the aerie. On the other hand, Not a bit of it, Canker grinned across at him. I'm genuine happiness as such is scarcely the province of Wamphyri! And so are you ... vampire thralls, but . . . at least their loads might be made a little easier to bear. The Sunside end of the pass was in sight, and beyond it This last thought had escaped him and been picked up a far horizon still stained with strips of dying colour: dun by Canker. 'Too true!' the dog-Lord called through the orange, a pale, dirty yellow, and amethyst. Nestor and blustery air, slicing it with his bark. 'You have to keep Canker ordered their flyers up, up, until they rode with a them happy. For you can be sure there are those among knot of dark clouds scudding south. Should they be seen 'em who'll be lusting after your women even now - aye, from the ground, they'd be just two more clouds chasing and lusting after Suckscar, too! There must be, else the fallen sun. nothing would ever change and no one ever ascend.' Now the hunt was on, for down below was Szgany territory. And as Nestor led the way and sped out with 374 375 the clouds over the forest, so Canker inquired: And j u s t river. Only Brad Berea had saved him, and returned him where do you think you're taking me? Man, these woods to life in the warmth and security of his cabin in the are dense, and the Szgany know them a damn sight better woods. Except ... Brad had been unkind to him, too, at than we do/ We should stick to the fringes, look for their times, and his wife Irma was often surly and grudging; fires. And where in hell do we land? And having landed, she'd even begrudged Nestor his food, despite that he'd from where do we launch? 7 mean, 1 know you're no hunted for all of them. Only Glina had truly felt for novice, that you've done all this before, but you're listening Nestor, and they had been lovers a while. to the voice of real experience here. Seventy years of it. Well, they'd shared sex, at least. But love? No, for And I tell you we should - Nestor already had a love . . . or would have had if his - Shhh! Nestor hushed him. Let me think. It's this way, if olden, forgotten enemy had not stolen her away. But my memory serves me right. Aye, this way! What is this Glina would make a good bed-warmer in Suckscar, be way? Canker demanded. Meat on the hoof, Nestor told him. sure, and certainly she could teach some of the other And everything else you mentioned. A woman for you - women in Nestor's harem how to relieve a man of his neither virginal nor young, but untainted certainly — and juices. another for me. And the blood of a good strong man to boot. There was no pity in Nestor now. In fact, it puzzled You can have both the man and his wife, and I shall have him why he'd held off all this time, knowing where the their daughter. JVot the best of thralls, be sure, but Bereas were and all. Perhaps it was that for a while he there's always the provisioning. had felt something of pity - for Glina at least, if not for You know this for a certainty? Canker was eager her parents. But that was then and this was now, and pity now. That these people are here, 1 mean? But he could and all such emotions were Szgany failings, not tell that indeed Nestor knew it for a certainty. Wamphyri. 1 know it. Down there, maybe four, five miles ahead, a Smoke! Canker cried in Nestor's mind. A whiff of it, cabin in the woods, all secret and hidden away. Their fire anyway, lingering on from the evening .meal. Aye, and is out by now but its smoke will linger a while. In a food smells, too, from the same source. Nestor, we've minute or two you'll sniff it out with that great wolf's passed over them! snout of yours. That is, now that you know it's there to 1 know it, Nestor replied. Now then, search for a knoll be sniffed. or cliff. That's where we'll land, and from there go on Huh! Canker grunted in Nestor's mind, and complained: afoot. But the wind's in the wrong direction.' Still, if there's Keen Wamphyri eyes scanned the night, and Canker smoke to be smelled, be sure that Canker will smell it! sent his wolf senses vibrating outwards from him like Ahead, a river uncoiled from the night like a silver the unheard locating call of a bat into the darkness. And: snake glinting in the starlight. And Nestor remembered a Over there, to the west. He leaned his flyer westwards. time when he had very nearly drowned in that same A knoll, mainly bald, rising out of the woods. It should suit our purpose. 376 377 / remember it, Nestor answered. I've hunted there Give me a moment to make my way to the back, he upon a time. Rabbits and the occasional goat. told the dog-Lord. There is a secret door, Inside, the girl Ah, but rarer meat tonight.1 Canker chuckled. And in Glina has a bed against the back wall, behind a curtain. the next moment he was businesslike again: Very well, She sleeps only a step away from the bolthole. But let's be at it. . . when you go in the front here, let her run . . . be sure Wamphyri senses guiding them safely down, they she won't run far, for I'll be waiting. Look for a ladder landed on the knoll in a swirling ground mist and settled which climbs to a bed under the roof. That's where to the rounded summit in twin slithers of sliding scree and Brad and Irma will be. They are yours. But careful, the crushed creepers. And leaving their beasts nodding there, man's a good shot and keeps a powerful crossbow to but with easy access to flight, they descended the knoll by hand both day and night. its eastern face. Thanks for the warning. Canker's answer was a Then a short, silent, gliding trip through the gloom of mental grunt. But you need not worry for me. I can the woods, Nestor moving like a shadow, tree to tree, and smell them up there even now, and what they're doing. Canker loping, leaning forwards, stepping so light that The girl smells a little sweeter, true, but we have a deal. never a twig was broken. A mile and a half, and: Good, said Nestor, and swiftly disappeared into We're there. Nestor's mental voice was like a waft of darkness. cold air in Canker's mind. And the dog-Lord thought, but Canker gave him a count of twelve, then loped to the to himself: door, put his great shoulder to it, and smashed right How this one has advanced in just one short year, through. Torn from leather hinges in a tangle of before answering: Where are we? Where? shattered withes, the door fell to the hard-packed floor This path. It leads from the river to the cabin. The cabin inside. Canker's glaring scarlet eyes took in everything at of Brad Berea, his wife and daughter. But remember: Glina a glance: a curtain hanging open a crack at the rear of Berea is mine. Before ... I was hers. This time it will be the cabin ... frightened eyes peering as the shade was different. She'll be mine always, in Suckscar. And unlike snatched from a lamp ... then the billowing of the the others, who suffer me because I am their Lord, I fancy curtains as the girl fled. And because his vampire senses Glina will love me, because I am a man. And I'll give her were alert as never before, he even heard her faint gasp power in my manse, once she's a vampire. of horror before she bundled herself into the bolthole. They followed the path to the cabin of the Bereas, all While from up above: shaded under great trees and lost in a tangle of bracken and The smell of sex had been replaced - by the acrid roots. No light showed through the woven shutters on the stench of fear! Brad Berea's voice was hoarse, calling: windows, but Nestor knew that a small shaded lamp would 'Glina! What is it?' His bearded face - eyes wide and be burning inside; also knew there was a bolthole to the staring, mouth agape as in a yawn — peered down from rear: a tunnel cut through the roots of an ancient, fallen the platform under the roof. ironwood. 'Nothing much,' Canker snarled at him. 'Only me!' 378 379 Brad's face disappeared; in a moment he was back, and loose, Irma Berea's breasts, and Canker liked them. swinging his legs down onto the upper rungs of the 'Ah . . . ah . . . ah!' she gasped, as his hand found his ladder, hanging there as he aimed a crossbow at the spot belt and loosened it, and his red eyes seemed to drip like where Canker had been. But Canker was no longer there. candles. And: 'Ah ... ahhh.'' she half-panted, half-gasped Instead he had stepped to the foot of the ladder, where again, as she saw him revealed. now he swept his arm like a knife through its brittle 'Oh, indeed,' Canker gurglingly, greedily agreed, wooden legs, bringing the whole contraption crashing advancing on her and tearing the blanket away, and down. And Brad came with it. reaching for her body. And as Irma's cries tore the As Brad smashed down among the ladder's ruins, Canker silence of the night, so the dog-Lord repeated her gasp kicked the crossbow from his nerveless fingers and sent it over and over and over again, filling her head and her clattering across the floor. And: 'Ho!' cried the dog-Lord. body with the sound of his panting, and with more than 'And would you shoot a poor old wolf like me? Shame on just sound: you!' He caught Brad under the arm and dragged the dazed 'Ahhh ... ahhh ... ahhh ... ahhh ... ahhhhhh!' man to his feet. Brad struggled a little then, and Canker felt his great strength. Nestor had been right: this burly barrel of a man would make a good strong vampire thrall. And so, before Brad could recover further: Canker bit him, sinking elongated ivory fangs deep into his neck. Brad choked something out, a word, inarticulate, and writhed in Canker's grip like a crippled snake. Until the dog-Lord crashed a fist into his ear and stilled his struggles. Then: 'Brad/' A shriek went up. Canker glanced overhead, saw a woman's terrified face gazing back at him. And: 'Madame,' Canker bowed grotesquely, 'your husband is mine now - and so are you.' He let Brad crumple to the earthen floor, crouched down a little, leapt high and caught the edge of the platform. And dragging himself up, he saw Irma where she had fallen back onto a pallet bed. Her hand covered her mouth and her eyes were wide as windows. £he would be thirty-eight or nine, but was still in fine fettle. Especially he noted her breasts, in the brief moment before she snatched up a coarse sheet. They were large 380 That voice.' Can it possibly be? If so, then he had II chosen the worst possible time to return. And why was he so still, so very silent? Nestor's Art As hoarse shouts and a crashing sound erupted from the cabin, and a muted squawking like throttled chickens but in her father's choked voice - and moments later her mother's fearful screaming - so Glina realized that the worst of her fears had been utterly selfish: that she would be left on her own. But now, if this stranger really was Glina Berea crouched low, the hair of her head brushed by him ... roots dangling through the soil of the ceiling, her fingers occasionally scrabbling at the stone-paved floor of the Heart fluttering, scarcely breathing, she reached out a bolthole tunnel, panting as she fled through the fallen trembling hand and touched his arm - and in that same ironwood's dead root system to the secret exit. Out there instant the clouds cleared the moon. Pallid light struck the deep dark woods, which she knew like the back of her through overhanging branches down into the small hand; clouds covering the moon, holding back its light; an clearing, and Glina saw that it was indeed Nestor. He owl hooting sleepily in the distance. She could escape, stood there with his eyes half-shuttered, handsome as hell, flee into the woods to one of the many hiding places she dark in a cloak the colour of night. And clasping his arm, knew there. But as Glina passed through the disguised she gasped. 'Nestor! It is you! But come, we must run, outer door and let it swing back on its hinges, her thoughts hide. The Wamphyri are here!' were not so much for herself as for the fate of her mother, 'I know,' he said, in that sepulchral voice which was his father, and ... and one other. and yet not his. If only she'd had time to - Then . . . he opened his eyes wider and she saw their '- Time to what, Glina?' scarlet glow, the convolutions of his vampire nose, and the white gleam of his teeth. And she knew that it wasn't Barefoot, she skidded to a halt in wet leaf-mould and only his voice which was him and yet not him. 'Nestor!' saw a shadow grow up beside her out of the gloom; but a shadow that knew her name. An even darker blot in the Her jaw fell open and she half-swooned into his arms. dark of the night, it flowed upon her, towering huge as if But: 'Ah, no,' he told her, gathering her up. 'Not simply to crush her with its awesome power and presence. But. . . Nestor, Glina, not any more. For from now on you must call me Lord.' ... That voice. Didn't she know that voice? As his needle teeth struck into the fluttering veins of 'And so you do remember,' the shadow sighed with its deep, dark, tantalizing voice, and moved closer still. And her neck, so she succumbed more fully to her faint... again she thought: Glina woke up and thought that she was burning: the roaring, leaping flames, the yellow glare, the wall of heat! 382 But it was only her home that was burning. She 383 saw it through the spread legs of the two who stood there, been done deliberately, still it was done. And anyway, arms akimbo, apparently admiring their work. Then ... Nestor wanted no bloodsons. Not yet. her heart leapt within her breast. The cabin! He released Glina who at once fell wailing to the earth 'My bairn!' she cried, struggling to sit up. 'You're at his feet and began beating her fists into the dirt. Until burning my bairn!' And shrieking like a madwoman - suddenly she stopped, glared up at Nestor and spat: 'And which in that moment she was - she reached up and my mother? And my poor father, too? Did you also burn clawed at Nestor's legs. But she could only loll there them alive?' against him, too spent to drag herself upright. Canker stepped forward and glared at her where she He shook his leg and, as her words sank in, made to sprawled. She was homely at best, with brown lustreless thrust her away from him. 'Bairn, Glina? What bairn?' hair, nose a little too sharp, heavy buttocks, and breasts 'Barn, did she say?' Canker scowled at her. 'No barn too large and pendulous despite her youth. Canker that, but a cabin! Or it was.' couldn't see what Nestor wanted with her, him being so 'My ... my child!' Glina sobbed, swaying like a stricken handsome and all. animal on all fours, and crawling towards the fire. 'My 'You, Glina,' he snarled at her. 'Your mother and father poor burned child!' But only half-way there the roof caved are alive. They lie sleeping in the grass, safe from the fire in and the flames were fanned outwards, threatening to but burning from a different heat now that the fever of engulf her. Even so, she would have crawled on if Nestor my bite courses through their veins. Rising up before the had not stepped forward, grabbed her up, dragged her dawn, they'll head for Starside to be mine in back from the inferno. Mangemanse.' And to Nestor: 'What child, Glina?' His face was an impenetrable, Does she speak the truth? Have you known her almost emotionless mask in the firelight; unlike Canker's, before? Well, obviously you have, else how could you which was still swollen with lust and power. 'You had no find your way back here? But a child? Your child? child.' She speaks the truth, Nestor answered. Can't you read 'Oh, but I did!' Her voice was a babble, a crazed shriek. it in her mind? 'Sixteen' sunups ago ... your child, Nestor, you black- I read hatred in her mind.' Canker answered at once. hearted beast! He's in there,' she pointed a madly shaking And a longing for death . . . or better still, revenge! Ah, hand at the blazing cabin, 'hidden in the wall in his crib. but she has strength, this one! She's awake well before We prayed that if the Wamphyri came, they would fail to her time, and she squawks too much. You want my find him. And you did fail. But how could I know you'd advice? Put an end to her, and now. Or if you wish, I'll burn the cabin? And so it's your own son that you've do it for you . . . He made as if to grab Glina's hair, but burned, you damned vampire!' the other put himself in the way. 'I . . . I fathered a son?' Something of life had come into The threat to her child woke her up, Nestor told him. Nestor's face, which didn't look quite so soulless. But in Else my bite would have kept her down. But ... she is the next moment the cold and the dark were back. What strong, yes, and will take command of all my women in was done was done. Despite that it had not Suckscar. 384 385 Canker shook his great wolf's head. My friend, you're Behind him, Canker went down on one knee in the making a mistake. grass and put his hands on the foreheads of his new Then it's my mistake. thralls. And: Come to me, he told them in their sleep, in 'Kill me!' Glina cried. 'I don't want to be a vampire. I Mangemanse. And if any man or woman shall say to you, don't want to live in a cold aerie on Starside. Not without 'you are mine,' then teM him, or her, that you belong to my bairn. Not without our baby, Nestor!' Canker Canison. For the other vampire Lords - aye, and a The cabin was now a gutted shell, a red-roaring bonfire certain Lady, too - they are as nothing to me! But onJy fail like a livid skull, whose blackened window eyes gushed to answer my caJl, then be sure I'M seek you out wherever smoke and flames. Nothing was alive in there, not you have been stolen away, and eat your Jiving hearts ... possibly, but it seemed to Glina that she heard a baby's and your seducer's, too! So be it! crying in every lick of fire and whoosh of falling timbers. Following which he loped swiftly after Nestor, to catch And when finally she knew that it was over, then she up with him ... sank down again to the earth and cried a little, and quickly rocked herself to sleep. Only an hour or so into sundown, and already we're three 'Now my bite works on her,' Nestor said, satisfied. fine thraDs better off, Canker chortled in Nestor's mind 'You should strike 'em in the ear, as I do,' the dog-Lord when they had been aloft for some little time. grunted, swatting the air with his fist. 'Knock them down And more thraJIs to go, I fancy, the other answered, and they stay down, and the fever burns that much faster.' training his concentration on the terrain below as they Nestor shook his head. 'No, for that way you'll lose winged back towards the barrier mountains. Can't you some by breaking their skulls. And I prefer thralls, not sense them? idiots!' 'What?' Canker burst out, staring across the gulf at him. 'Huh!' the other snorted. 'Skulls mend. Most of them.' The air was still now and they flew only a little But a mood was on Nestor now, and it was not the distance apart, so that shouting was unnecessary. But the mood for argument. 'Have it your own way,' he muttered. dog-Lord was annoyed; his senses were perhaps superior And stooping to pick Glina up, he tossed her over his to all others of his ilk; what could Nestor have sensed that shoulder and headed for the knoll. he did not? More smoke, furtive movement in the night, 'Can't she make her own way, like her mother and the frightened thoughts of Travellers seeking a hiding father?' Canker called after him. place till sunup? If so, then why did Canker sense 'I have my needs, much like you,' Nestor answered, nothing? Ah, but this Nestor was a curious one: an without looking back. 'Some of which are immediate and enigma! And Canker was fascinated by him. may not be kept waiting. But I want her awake. Strange I sense ... thoughts, said Nestor. And I sense ... as it may seem to you, this girl knew how to satisfy me, whispers! Hushed, cautious words spoken in the dead upon a time.' And to himself: Indeed, she was my teacher and mistress, when I knew nothing. 386 387 If he had thought to galvanize Nestor he was mistaken. of night. Someone hides - perhaps a good many some- For now the other was quieter still and his mind even ones - and they know we are here. darker as he guided his flyer into a swooping glide Hah! Maybe they saw us Jimned against the moon, said towards the cluster of knolls. Following him down, the Canker, at once falling into his mental mode. Or they've dog-Lord demanded: Well? spied us darting out from the edge of the cloud. And then, And at last Nestor answered him. These are the dead of in admiration of his young friend: You've come on faster the Szgany, Canker. Which is why you failed to detect than even I suspected, Nestor, and I have always known them. I realize that now, that these are dead men in their that you'd be great! Now then, where are these secretive graves: tattered leather and fretted bone, or ashes in small whisperers in the night? urns, all gathered together in one place around that Those three knolls there, at the edge of the woods. mortuary rock. Nestor pointed. Between them, a wooded triangle. And Ah! Canker's mental gasp. An ancient Traveller central, a rocky outcrop weathered to a dome. graveyard! Your art. . . you sniffed them out! I see it! Canker grew excited. Down there, that's where they are. They are But barely before they sniffed me out! For they smell somewhere ... down there. But a moment later: Ah! And me as the forest creatures smell a fire: with vast amaze now they guard their minds! They've sensed me listening and fear. Except it's my talent sets fire to their old bones! in on them. Then, since they can't run from me, they try to shut me Canker was puzzled. What, Travellers? Mentalists out; they fall silent and wait for me to go away. But this among the Szgany? Several of them? Well, and it's not time I'm not going to. Not for a little while, anyway. And unheard of, I suppose. But together? In a bunch? you, Canker? You wanted to see me demonstrate my art? Nestor was silent - too silent, now - and Canker sensed Well now's your chance. the darkness in him like a shroud for his shrivelled soul. I cannot contain myself, the dog-thing admitted. What? But there was something of awe, too, the sudden A man who pursues his prey even beyond death? You'll be recognition or acceptance of knowledge which had been a legend yet! absent just a moment ago. What is it, Nestor? They landed on the rim of the central outcrop and Still the other was silent, listening ... climbed carefully down. At its base, uncounted years had Nestor? weathered the yellow sandstone into a series of shallow And at last he snapped out of it. They are not ... they're cavelets useless as hiding places for living Szgany, but not what 1 thought they were. more than sufficient for their dead. Which was exactly what they found: Not Szgany? Oh, yes, they're Szgany. Or they were ... A mortuary, as Nestor had guessed - or known. Were? Canker scowled, finally admitted defeat, and In all the cavelets, niches had been carved in the walls barked out loud: 'What in all Turgosheim and Starside where urn after urn reposed in the echoing rock. Entire together are you talking about? Give me a clue, can't you?' families had been burned and interred here, as each member in his turn died; but that had been in the 388 389 It was blacker than night in the cave, but this was of no years of the Old Wamphyri, who were no more. It had consequence to Wamphyri sight and senses. The Lords been in the merciless years of the vampire, when the only Nestor and Canker could see as well - and indeed better - safe way was to burn the dead. Since when there'd been than in broad daylight. For daylight is bred of the sun, some eighteen years of peace - broken only once -before and nothing of the sun is of benefit to the Wamphyri. Wratha came with her renegades out of Tur-gosheim. Except that men live in it. And in those eighteen years men had commenced to bury Canker Canison stood to one side of Nestor and back a their fellows again, returning soil to soil. Or to wrap pace, watching. He saw how Nestor's hands trembled as them in oil-soaked cloths and deposit them on ledges in he reached out and placed them upon the mummified dry places, where their descendants might visit from time forehead and sunken chest of the one who was no more. to time and perhaps even talk to them. Except, of course, And it was hard for Canker to believe that anything of the dead could not talk back. Not to just anyone ... sentience remained in the tattered, withered husk which This was just such a place. In the deepest, driest caves, Nestor touched. But: ledges had been cut in the walls which housed complete Do you hear me, old Chief? Nestor queried. But carcasses, the mummies of old Szgany chiefs. None of Canker heard nothing - not even a whisper - for this was the corpses was recent, and some must have lain here for not mentalism but deadspeak. Do you feel my hands - oh, the full eighteen years, by Nestor's reckoning - since upon you? I know you do, for I can sense your mind the earliest days of Traveller freedom. But he did not want damped shut like a trap on a bear's leg, and though your to inquire of one who had been dead too long. No, he body can't move, still your trembling is like a fever in wanted one more recently dead -say ten to twelve years - you. And yet I say to you, you need not fear me. because he had a question for him which went back to his own unremembered childhood. Indeed, it concerned 'Well?' Canker grunted from behind. For to the dog- one of the few memories he still retained from the olden Lord's mind it seemed that nothing was happening. 'What times before he'd been hurt and ... and before he had now?' forgotten things; before he became Wamphyri. And so he Nestor turned his head and looked into Canker's chose a cadaver which had only journeyed midway down wolfish eyes, their blood-hued orbs and tiny pinprick the long, lingering road of dusty decomposition, and went pupils, yellow as his mistress moon. 'Be quiet! Let me to him where he lay upon his sandstone ledge. make contact with him. For until I do you'll hear nothing, see nothing.' Then, as Nestor drew near, so the old one began to tremble. Not visibly - of course not - but in his dead- Then what is this for a demonstration?' the other speak mind. seemed affronted. 'How can I know what passes between 'He knows me!' said Nestor, his voice the merest you, if indeed anything passes between you?' whisper, echoing away and back. 'He knows me for what 'Either be quiet,' Nestor snapped, 'or go and leave me I am.' on my own here! There's that which I need to know from this one.' 390 391 'Huh!' But the other fell silent. fled outwards from a certain spot in the white-pulsing I ask you one Jast time to speak to me, Nestor told the sky. And the fleeing clouds all red in their underbellies, cadaver. I want to know who you were, and 1 want to reflecting unseen fires. While bloating like some gigantic, know what you heard, felt, saw, one morning in that loathsome mushroom in the cleared central space - time be/ore you died, when the fleeing clouds glowed - A great grey cloud on an upwards-thrusting pillar or red, and the billowing belly of one cloud in particular -a stalk of fire and smoke, growing up behind the mountains great white nodding mushroom of a cloud - burned and swaying there; its puffball head all roiling and crimson over Starside. Do you remember? 1 know you churning from within, displaying the madly blazing fires do: when there was thunder in the air and earth alike, at its red and yellow heart! and warm unseasonal winds came rushing through the Nestor saw these things through the eyes of memory, passes from the north. And 1 repeat: you have nothing to which were also the eyes of a badly frightened four-year- fear from me, not if you tell me these things as best you old child, namely himself. But now as a man he knew for remember them. But if you do not ... Thus the a fact that whatever the memory signified, it had monstrous threat (for all that it was unspoken) was happened; and also knew that it was important to him. He issued. had woken up there in that forest glade, and cried out into In Nestor's mind, conjured there by his own the dawn. Something had brought him awake to witness questioning, a scene from childhood opened up. He the lightnings, the fires in the sky and the roiling knew it of old, but never as vivid as this: a true memory, mushroom cloud. But what? Whatever it had been, it had as if some lesion had finally repaired itself in the sent him tottering, crying to his mother (his dear mother! damaged whorl of his brain, adding colour and But who had she been, and where was she now? And definition to previously misty monochrome pictures out anyway, what difference did it make, for he was of the past. And because Nestor's thoughts were Wamphyri?) to be crushed in her arms and comforted. deadspeak, the pictures were seen by the extinct Szgany And it had caused him to ask her a question which had no chieftain, too: apparent source, one to which he'd received no The barrier mountains as viewed from Sunside; a thin satisfactory answer: morning mist drifting through crags which were silver- 'Is my daddy . . . is he dead?' grey, because the sun had not yet discovered them. A But even though he no longer remembered his mother - glade hidden deep in the forest, mist-damp, all green not a single detail - he recalled how quiet she had gone, leaves and dark green shade, where the birds had barely and how her heart had fluttered as she held him against commenced their dawn chorus before lapsing into her breast... abrupt silence; for suddenly the earth underfoot had All of which was deadspeak, and so passed from given itself a mighty slap and a shake, and a sheet of Nestor's mind into the mind of the old Szgany chief. And pulsing, dazzling white light had turned the mountains to the old chief was trembling again, no less than the a black silhouette. Then: necromancer's forgotten mother on that morning of Webs of white lightning leaping and coruscating mornings; but still he said nothing. Until: between the clouds over Starside, clouds which at once 393 392 'So. You are unwilling, and I am impatient. Indeed, my Well? Nestor asked him again. And will you remain patience is at an end!' And with one hand upon the silent forever? I think not. You know what I am, the corpse's brow, he used the other to crumble two of its nature of my art, for even now you can feel my hands desiccated fingers into dust! Behind Nestor, Canker resting oh so lightly upon your dead flesh. When I touch gawped and gasped his delight. you - whatever I choose to do to you - you will feel it. If And now the old chief was no longer unwilling. I were to break off one of your dry and crumbling Perhaps he had not believed it himself: that Nestor could fingers, you would feel the pain of it even as if you were hurt him even as if he were alive. But now he believed it. alive. And if I were to dig into your wormy chest and Part of his hand had been crushed into dust, and the pain squeeze your heart, it would be like a second dying ... had been real. It was the necromancer's art: that the dead except you are already dead, and so I could do it over could sense him near, hear him when he spoke to them, and over again. You know I speak the truth, and now it's feel him when he touched them - or when he did other your turn to speak the truth. You saw the pictures in my things to them. mind, memories from my childhood? Yes, I'm sure you And in Nestor's weird mind the dead old man was did. I want to know what they signify, and I want you to screaming, for he'd felt his fingers pulped as beneath a tell me ... now! He took the skeletal hand of the chief falling boulder! They were dust and brittle bones, but carefully in his own powerful vampire hand, and blew when Nestor had crushed them they'd been as flesh again. the dust of the cave from the crumbling flesh and white bone knuckles. And: For a while Nestor listened to the old chief's screaming, I . . . I may not speak to you! The chief's voice was and to the absolute silence of the rest of the dead where pitiful in its terror. they were scattered about. Their silence, their fear, and You are forbidden to speak to me? Nestor stroked the their hatred. It made him feel powerful, especially their hand and gently eased the fused fingers apart from one hatred. He was powerful, for he was the necromancer another. Lord Nestor Lichloathe of the Wamphyri! But he was You are a vile necromancer! The dead will forsake me to truly impatient now and desired to be up and away; away darkness and loneliness forever if I breathe a single from this dead place and all its dead inhabitants, up into word to you. the night sky and searching for the living. For it's blood But you have already breathed a good many words, which is the life, not dust. Nestor replied. Now he sighed a false sigh and arched his hand on the 'Speak up!' Canker rumbled from behind. 'What's all old chief's chest, until his blunt, powerful fingernails this muttering?' formed a bridge there. Only give a push ... his hand 'Ah!' Nestor was startled for a moment. But then: would sink through rotten cloth and wormy flesh into the 'Muttering? Was I? Then be quiet and I'll speak out loud very soul of the one who lay there incapable of for you. It will make no difference now that we're in movement. And if the old chief had not had faith in contact, myself and this wormy old thing.' And to the Nestor's talent before, certainly he believed in it now, chief: 394 395 No! No! The old chief gasped his deadspeak denial. especially knowing what was in the necromancer's Only hold off, necromancer, and 1 shall tell you all. And mind. without further pause, he did: Wait! He cried, his deadspeak voice broken like an old 1 am - I was - Agon Mitrea, son of Lexandru, and like pot. I will speak' I'll tell you everything you desire to my father before me 1 led the Szgany Mitrea through fifteen know: the meaning of these things which you have years of Wamphyri oppression; also through the balmy remembered, how I myself rememember them and what years of peace. Until they came again, briefly, out of the they meant to me. Indeed, I think they may be the reason I Icelands, but only to be destroyed at the hell-lands Gate. died before my time ... And that is the time and the event which you have Nestor was fascinated. 'Say on - but first you'd best tell remembered from your childhood. 1 cannot be mistaken. me your name. For it seems improper to share this mutual event from the past of both our lives, without that we've 'What? The destruction of the Old Wamphyri?' Nestor's first been introduced. And after all, you know who I am, fascination grew by leaps and bounds. but I've not yet had the pleasure.' Indeed,' the corpse gave a motionless deadspeak nod. Must I t-tell you my n-n-name? The other's voice After that, gradually the Szgany stopped traveling, most shivered, almost as if it would fly into shards. of us, to make our Jives in towns and settled camps. But 'Oh, yes. For if you lie to me ... I'm sure that your sons following the fire in the sky, the thunder in the earth, the and daughters and their children are still abroad in the DOOM across the mountains in Starside, I had only three world of the living. So that even when I've finished with years left. And 1 will tell you about it: you, there shall always be other fish to fry - if you have That morning of which you speak - it must be fifteen or lied to me!' sixteen years ago now - I witnessed that same awesome My sons? The old man was distraught; Nestor could wonder exactly as you did, though I suspect I was very almost sense him wringing his hands, though of course he much closer to its source than you were; too close, in fact. lay motionless on his shelf. And ... and their sons? The pulsing white light, a great sheet of it that threw the The necromancer merely shrugged. 'I am a vampire - mountains into silhouette and burned like naked fire on the indeed a Lord of vampires, Wamphyri - and prey upon the ball of the eye; the crack! - sharp as a stone split by the living. But tell me the truth and you and yours are safe. I'll heat of a furnace - followed by a dull rumble of continuous not bother them . . . I swear it.' Nestor's voice was the soul thunder in air and earth alike; the web-h'ke lightnings and (or soullessness) of sarcasm. fleeing clouds, all red and flickering in their underbellies. You swear it? You? And should I believe you? And then that monstrous mushroom ball, growing taller 'Do you have a choice?' Nestor smiled with his voice ... than the mountains themselves, climbing higher and higher, and then stopped smiling. 'Enough! Let's have done with with the fires of its guts all spilling out from its heart! this now. Should I squeeze your heart, until all of the Nestor saw it all in the dead man's mind just as he worms that are in it are pulp?' He pressed down lightly, himself had described it, but closer and from a different until the nails of his hand cut through the mouldy cloth of the other's shroud. 396 397 angle. And now he said: 'You say you were closer than I panic flight, so a hot wind from hell blew through the was - much too close, in fact - but where were you pass from Starside. And there was sulphur and stench exactly, and what do you mean, too close?' and burning in it, and most likely poison, too. No, I am In those days my people Jived only a few miles from certain - there was poison! this very spot, this ancient Szgany burial place, Agon I smelled it, breathed it in, felt it burning on my face. A answered at once, for he was well under Nestor's control wind out of Starside ... but warm? I didn't know what to now. We dwelled in a settled camp west of the great pass make of it. It was the breath of hell, or the exhaust of the through the barrier mountains. That morning I was out weapons of hell at least; or possibly, but I doubt it, the with ... with my sons - awful stench of a vampire wizard's experiment, which - But in the next moment, realizing what he had said or had rebounded and destroyed them all at a stroke ... And given away, Agon paused in shock, as if he'd suddenly as if he were out of breath (this man who had not clapped a hand to his mouth. breathed in all of thirteen years), Agon Mitrea at last fell Nestor smiled and said, 'Ah, and so you do have sons? silent... Now I can be sure you'll tell me the whole truth. But go Until in a little while Nestor told him: 'Not all of the on: you were out that morning with your sons...?' Wamphyri were destroyed. The Old Wamphyri, aye, but Out h-hunting with them, y-yes, old Agon continued, not those who inhabit the last aerie now. For far in the wishing it were possible to die again, right now; which he east, beyond a great red desert wasteland, the lands have would gladly do, if only it would put him and his beyond been ruled by vampire Lords from time immemorial until the reach of this fiend. We were up before dawn; the the present day. Their place is called Turgosheim, which rabbits come out in the dawn, likewise the deer and wild is the source of —' pigs. There are good hunting grounds in the eastern - Of this most recent .. . infestation! Agon finished it foothills, beyond the mouth of the pass. We had been for him, his deadspeak voice filled with loathing. there and were on our way back, loaded down by the Now it was Nestor's turn to fall silent a moment, and weight of good meat; all Sunside on our left hand, a to tilt his head slowly on one side. And how his eyes glorious sun just breaking free of the horizon, and the burned red in the darkness of the cave as he gazed down mouth of the pass on our right... on the corpse of the old chief and repeated his final word ... And that was when it happened - when the fading out loud: 'Infestation? What, like lice, do you mean? You stars were blotted out entirely, and all the sky over are very ... frank, Agon Mitrea, son of Lexandru.' Starside turned blinding white! We were blinded, if only I could not hide my feelings about you and your like for a moment, or seconds at most. We staggered and even if I tried, the other answered, bitterly now. No, not stumbled as the earth trembled, and some of us even fell even if you make me pay for it! to the ground to hug it. Ah, but they were the lucky ones! 'No need for payment,' Nestor told him. 'Not yet...' They were shielded from what came next. For even as the Then what else do you want from me? clouds burned red and began their Tell me about this poison,' Nestor said. 'For obviously 399 398 you believe that is what you died of just three years gazed into the hot wind through the pass. And none of later.' them fathered children from that day to this. Several died, There were rumours, theories, wild guesses about it. of which . . . I was one. As for the ones who stumbled and Agon Mitrea gave a careless deadspeak shrug. He was fell down in the heather or behind boulders when the earth sure the Great Majority would want nothing more to do shook - yes, and mercifully my sons were among them - with him now, not after he had spoken to a necromancer. they suffered very little. Only a sickness, a malaise, which And exiled to eternal darkness, denied the comradeship of wore off in time. the teeming dead, what good would this monotonous non- 'Enough!' Canker barked from behind Nestor. 'I can't existence of his be to him then? The Szgany are not make head or tail of it. Oh, I believe that you speak to without their so-called 'wise men', seers and thinkers, he him and he answers you, but it makes no sense to me for finally continued. Some had it that the Old Wamphyri, I hear only you. Therefore I waste my time here. And I led by Shaitan the Unborn himself, had been wizards fancy you waste yours, too. Now, are you coming - or do I who called up one too many demons out of the earth. go on alone, and see you later back in Wrath-stack?' They said that the poisonous mushroom cloud must have Nestor looked at Canker, then at the lich of Agon been one such demon. But as I've told you already, I Mitrea. He had no more questions for the old chief, and doubt it. Be that as it may, its poison spread like wildfire like the dog-Lord he had had enough of corpses for one on Starside. The stony ground there was said to shine at night. He turned to follow Canker where already he was night, and whatever was in that shine, it killed off the loping towards the exit... then paused and slowly turned cavern trogs in their hundreds and produced as many back. And: But I have not said my farewells. He used his grotesque mutations among them! deadspeak. 'A foxfire?' Nestor was curious now, for he'd seen just Say nothing, but simply go! Agon shuddered his relief. such a plume of shining earth on Starside, like a finger Except - five miles long, pointing north from the glaring hell- - At the start of their question and answer session, the lands Gate. Also, there were traces of that same old chief had not been very forthcoming. That had been a luminescence in the foothills and along the base of the mistake on his part, from which the teeming dead might mountains to the west, where the trogs dwelled in their learn something. And later, Agon had been ... frank. dank caverns. Indeed he had been too frank. Despite Nestor's Like a foxfire, yes. But foxfire is the glow of rottenness, recognition of the fact that the louse and the vampire are and this was the glow of death! two of a kind, which is to say bloodsuckers, still he'd not 'Explain.' cared for the old man's comparison. So that now Nestor There's nothing much to explain. Again the old chief's thought to himself: this Agon really should be taught a shrug. Those men with me in the mouth of the pass: by lesson. And drawing back his lips from his teeth in a sundown their hair was falling out; their gums and snarl, and grasping the corpse's elbow and fingernails bled; their faces turned white where they'd 400 401 upper arm, suddenly and without warning he gave a twist and a wrench, and tore the limb free of its rotting shoulder! Shreds of tattered black flesh hung down from Ill After the Hunt: the gaping socket and fat white graveworms wriggled Nestor and Glina where the dismembered arm flopped to the dusty floor. Then, as Agon's mind yawned open like an incorporeal mouth to issue a scream of denial, so Nestor coughed up phlegm and spat it into his empty eye-sockets, and bayed with laughter as the old chief recoiled from it without moving the merest fraction of an inch. A little over three hours later, after resting their flyers a Following which, smiling in his morbid fashion, Nestor while in the foothills of the barrier mountains, and set out after Canker. And as behind him the violated having then launched skywards to fly with the clouds corpse issued peal after peal of silent, resounding shrieks - once more, Nestor and Canker's vampire senses and the teeming dead in their urns and on their ledges simultaneously picked up strong Szgany vibrations. cried out for pity - finally Nestor Lichloathe knew that he Landing at the edge of dense woodlands six miles west of had earned his name in full. the great pass, they found warm embers in a dead fire. And he was glad ... Then, going to all fours and sniffing in a wide circle all about, like a great hound or the dog-thing that he was, Canker soon picked up the scent; and with Nestor following on close behind, he began tracking his prey along the overgrown forest paths. In less than half an hour they had found the Traveller group: two young men, two young women, a twelve-year-old girl and an infant. They had split into two family groups and slept beneath oiled leather awnings roped to the lower branches of trees in a natural clearing. And they were bundled up in cured furs on beds of bracken when Canker and Nestor came upon them. Now this is more to my liking! The dog-Lord coughed in Nestor's mind where they stood like wraiths wrapped in a mist of their own making, looking down on the sleeping faces of the group. Aye, this is the stuff: it's exactly what I had in mind! A man each, a woman each - this sweet girl-child with her sex unexplored, tight as 403 a mouse's earhole, to open up and fill on the one hand, something shrieked its abhorrence even now; but if so its bite into and drain to the dregs on the other - and an infant cries were weak and went unheard. /or roasting in the mountains when we're feeling peckish, As for what Nestor had said to the dog-Lord, which before we fly back to Starside! And come sunup, four must surely be seen as an insult: brand new thralls in our manses in Wrath-stack! This wiJI Nestor could say anything to him, even things which have been a night and a half, and time for a Jot more would get other men killed. Usually Canker would grunt business yet. Hah! But we make a good team, you and I. and turn away, to show his disapproval if Nestor's words The infant Jives, Nestor answered. had cut him; but this time he was satisfied to laugh in his Of course he does, Canker agreed. For now. fashion. A child, you say? Well I say she's a she! And No, he is to remain aJive, untouched, untainted. she'll be good and tight! What? But he'U be succulent! And without these adults His laughter died away in Nestor's mind, to be replaced - with them as thralls in Wrathstack - what chance does he by cold cunning, insatiable lust, and purest evil. Then, have anyway? with his eyes blazing like fires as his fangs commenced to Plenty of chances, in Suckscar. lengthen and salivate, Canker went into a crouch over his You'll give him to that dumpling Glina? In place of the intended victims and growled in Nestor's mind: When you one she lost? Canker's mind was shrewd when he desired are ready, ;ust say the word. it to be. Nestor was ready. 'Now!' he said out loud. Aye. It sometimes works with wolves. Without the They had hung their gauntlets from branches, to be infant we deprived her of she might hate me, and I want picked up later when all was done. There had seemed little or no requirement for serious weaponry on this her to love me. occasion. Now they reached down together, gripped the You put a Jot of store by that girl. Is she that good? men by their throats and drew them swiftly from their She was good to me, upon a time. I . . . have my beds. Canker's was very young; the dog-Lord nipped him reasons. Let it be . . . in the neck, delivered a stunning blow to the side of his So be it, Canker shrugged. The child Jives. In which head, tossed him aside and reached greedily for his case, the young girJ is mine. suddenly screaming woman. Will you keep her? Nestor slammed his man against the bole of the tree No, but I'll be into her! And I'll drink what's left when and, as the wind was knocked out of him and he opened I'm done! his mouth to cry his shock and terror, pinned him there by Nestor scowled and said: Fox, dog, wolf? Maybe there's driving the six-inch blade of his knife through his gasping something of the pig in you, too! She's a mere child, mouth and right cheek, deep into the bark and tough Canker! But in fact he knew that she was only meat, or timber core. Conscious for now, the man stood there would be soon. And anyway, he didn't really care one way naked and shivering, slopping blood and saliva, gurgling or the other. Yet in the back of his mind, in the ever where he clung to the tree to keep from falling and shrinking human part of him, perhaps ripping his face wide open. He tried 404 405 once to free the knife, despite the incredible pain it woman's knife arm and felt it break like a twig. And as caused him, but only half-awake and weak from shock she cried her agony he clouted her on the head in the and horror — and Nestor having driven the knife home manner prescribed by the dog-Lord. Felled, she at once with a vampire's enormous strength - it was a wasted slumped to the forest floor. effort. While from some little distance away: Meanwhile, Nestor reached down again into the bundle 'A-ha/' came Canker's bark of triumph, and a moment of furs, but his attack on the man had taken time and later the wail of the waif. For the dog-thing had pursued given the woman a breathing space. She was already on and caught the small girl. And of course Nestor knew her feet and running. what he would do with her. But that was the way of it; 'After her, lad!' Canker cried, from where he'd tossed the Wamphyri have their needs, and Canker's needs were his victim face-down across a fallen tree trunk, mounted ... often prodigious. And after all, the blood is the life, her from the rear and was hammering into her while she and young blood is the sweetest. howled the agony of her violated flesh. 'Ah, the thrill of Briefly, curiously, Nestor found himself wondering the chase is - ah, ahh! - good,' he panted, 'but the rewards whether Canker would drink before or after he'd used her are so much better! Except you mustn't forget - ah, ahh, . . . or during? But in any case the girl was as good as ahhh! - leave the girl-child to me. For I'll not be - ahhh.' - ruined; she would be a vampire in Mangemanse, if the I'll not be too long here.' dog-Lord left her enough strength to make it through the The girl, who had been sleeping a little apart from pass before the dawn ... Canker's targeted group, was also running; her long, slim white legs flashed in blue starlight as she sped barefoot The infant's extra weight was negligible. Bundled up at into the forest. Nestor noted which direction the the rear of Nestor's saddle behind Glina's slumped form, youngster took, passed the information to the dog-Lord in it cried out once or twice during the blustery ascent on a single instantaneous thought, then hurried after the the night thermals, but that was all. Yet its cries were woman and quickly caught up with her. sufficient to cause Glina to stir and moan in her vampire Panting, whining deep in her throat like a trapped sleep. animal, she found her way blocked by thorn bushes, spun Sensing that she would soon wake up, and again before on her heel and saw Nestor coming ... and rushed straight her time, Nestor decided to test his theory. If Glina took at him! Taken by surprise, indeed astonished, for a to the child - and if the merest spark of her old love for moment he stood stock still - until he saw the starlight him could yet be rekindled - then he would carry her to glinting on the knife in her hand! And that hand even now Suckscar, to be his thrall and warm his bed. If not ... arcing towards him. Ducking to one side, he felt the keen perhaps he would still take her to Suckscar. There was blade slicing into his arm: cold metal wetted on blood, always the provisioning. cutting skin, muscle, metamorphic vampire sinew. 'What now?' Canker called across to him, breaking his Furious, snarling - controlling his pain as only a Lord train of thought. 'What say we settle in the heights and of the Wamphyri can - Nestor struck at the rest awhile, and scan for Szgany fires and such?' 406 407 'Not me,' Nestor called back. Til stop while I'm ahead. bundled and placed Glina upon it. Which was when she You carry on if you wish, and I'll see you back in woke up. Wrathstack. Me, I've had more than enough for one 'What? Who?' She struggled to sit up a little way, then night. My flyer's weary. I'll take a break in the heights, fell back, to lie there wrapped in dark fur, pale and aye, but then I'm on my way back.' dishevelled in the starlight. She looked, and was, a Canker looked across at him and grinned lewdly, captive thing, a thrall, not only physically but mentally, shrewdly. 'Your mind's an open door, Nestor. You never too; or she would be soon. Which excited him and made even sniffed that girl back there, or touched Glina for him want to use her. But he would not take her by force, that matter. But now at last your juices are working. for he wanted her to come to him as she had used to. If You want her, but you're being coy about it. Well, that's she wouldn't, then he would find another use for her. She fair enough. Have it your own way. Canker's not the one was only flesh and blood. to stay where he's not wanted. And anyway, you're She had been watching him for some time, until right: enough's enough for one night. I have work finally: 'You ...' she said. But her voice was dead, empty. aplenty in Mangemanse. I want to get back early and see He took the child to her, showed her his face. 'My baby?' what my lads are up to . . . and my lasses! And then Suddenly Glina's voice was a whisper of hope; she there's my moon music ...' couldn't believe it; she reached for the child ... and saw 'Farewell, then,' Nestor told him. that he was not hers. And Canker threw back his head and yipped, then 'No,' said Nestor, shaking his head. 'He's not yours. sped for a gap between the peaks and was soon lost But he can be, if you want him.' He covered the baby from sight... again and put him to one side, in the heather. 'You burned my baby,' she said, her voice cold again. Nestor landed his flyer in the thin soil of a saddle 'And now you would give me this one? Some other poor between jutting granite outcrops. Situated at a slightly mother's loss?' higher altitude than the Sunside treeline, the hollow was 'I didn't burn your child.' Nestor lied easily, for lying is thickly clad in purple night-blooming heather, which gave the natural province of vampires. 'It was the dog-Lord, the place a cloying, sickly-sweet smell. Canker Canison. He burned your cabin. In any case, we He lifted Glina down from his saddle and saw how didn't know there was an infant in there.' cold and trembly she was. Well, and she would soon 'But my baby burned nevertheless. And you, Nestor? become accustomed to that; only the most extreme What do you care? You are a vampire!' subzero temperatures will seriously incapacitate a He shrugged. 'It was my destiny. To be Wamphyri. vampire. But for the moment ... they might as well be Didn't I always tell you I was the Lord Nestor? Well, and comfortable, at least. now I am.' And so he took down the infant child, wrapped him Suddenly Glina was sobbing: deep, wracking, painful in his own soft leather jacket and laid him to one side, sobs. then spread the cured fur in which the child had been 408 409 He sat down with her and put an arm round her when he called to her she would always come, and she shuddering shoulders. 'Tears change nothing.' would never be free from his fascination. Amazingly, she snuggled up to him . . . or perhaps not 'You were like no other,' he answered, throwing off his amazingly. She was after all his thrall, and Nestor was clothes, 'because you loved me and gave your all. Now, her master. Also, he now felt a power in himself, a talent in Suckscar, they only give to fill my needs, because they which he had not used before, because he'd not been desire to please me. But . . . it rarely pleases me.' aware of it; had not needed to know it. And his eyes were And he entered her like never before, and his metamor- hypnotic and his voice languorous when he said, 'Aye we phic flesh filled her and brought her shuddering to an sat together many a time, you and I, in your father's cabin instant orgasm - and another - and another! Until she when they were abed. And sometimes we'd go down to cried out for him to stop, for she felt that she couldn't the river, too ...' stand one more. But he gave it to her anyway. And Conscious of her flesh, he opened the furs a little until because her sex was bruised, Nestor took her in her his hand could steal inside to weigh her breasts. Just as in mouth and in her exit, and was well-received in both. that other time. And again she softened and snuggled And for him it was like it had never been in Suckscar. closer, and said, 'You don't know how many times I've As for Glina: she'd never in her wildest dreams cried myself to sleep and longed for your return. But not imagined it could be like this with any man; and of like this. Nestor, what will become of me? Will you make course it couldn't, for Nestor was much more than a man. me a vampire, too?' He was Wamphyri! And what woman will ever go lusting 'But it's done,' he said, with another shrug. 'My mark is after men, once she has had a vampire . . . or after he has on you. It's the mark of that which governs me and could had her? be no other way. As to what will become of you: we'll fly Upon a time (it seemed an age) Glina had seduced to Wrathstack, the last aerie, if you wish it. And the child, him. Now she, in turn, was seduced. By his voice, his too.' eyes, his hands, his body. She was (of course) enthralled. 'And if I do not wish it?' And she knew that if she couldn't have him - have this, 'Then you must make your own way, for you can't which he had showed her - then she would destroy dwell on Sunside now.' herself utterly. And so she determined that she wouJd Then I have no choice.' have it, and be his mistress in Suckscar. 'You loved me, upon a time,' he said, his hands But what Glina didn't know was this: that of all his insistent now. mistresses she would only be one. In their turn, her hands found his member standing And what Nestor didn't know and never discovered erect and jerking. She lay back, sighed, threw open her was this: that Wratha the Risen had seen him with Glina blanket of fur. 'How I have wanted you! And even now, ... when I should hate you, still I want you.' It was his vampire stuff in her. From time to time she would hate Wratha's raid on Sunside had been disastrous. him, look back on what she'd lost and hate him. But 411 410 Plotted in anger and badly executed as a result, the never a captive taken, nor a single changeling thrall who outcome had been no better than last time. For the ever made it out of the region to come shambling and previous raid had also been against ruined Settlement, mewling over the boulder plains before sunup, and and it had worked out expensive indeed: she had lost one nothing to show for this humiliation except perhaps in lieutenant dead and another seriously wounded, a newly- Wratha's vampire heart: her absolute determination that weened flyer destroyed, and a small aerial warrior one day she'd bring the Szgany Lidesci - Lardis included, decoyed, brought down, deflated and burned. As a result especially him - to their knees! of which Wrathspire had been depleted and Wratha the As for Settlement itself: Risen had vowed revenge on the Szgany Lidesci, whose The town stood (or slumped, now) at the base of name had become a curse throughout Wrathstack in its Sunside's foothills some eighty-odd miles west of the entirety. great pass. It had been a thriving community when For Wratha wasn't the only one who had been Wratha and the others came fleeing here out of the east frustrated in her attempts to raid on Settlement. The from Turgosheim beyond the Great Red Waste. But other Lords were in the same fix; try as they might, they flying out from the last aerie on that initial raid, they'd could never go anywhere near the place with impunity first hit Twin Fords, a neighbouring town, then but suffered losses at every turn. For the erstwhile Settlement, and reduced them to so much rubble. It inhabitants of Settlement - a town which Wratha and her should have been total victory, followed by utter renegades, as they'd termed themselves then, had tried to subjugation of the Szgany and eventually a free run of destroy on their very first excursion out of the last aerie - Sunside such as that enjoyed by Vormulac Unsleep and had proved a difficult lot to cow. Indeed difficult wasn't his vampire colleagues in Turgosheim. It should have the word for it: they were impossible! been like that, but wasn't. For during the course of those Fighters born, their leader was a man who seemed as vicious preemptive strikes, Wratha and her raiders had crafty and merciless as the Wamphyri themselves. His themselves been taken by surprise - when the humans hit name was Lardis Lidesci, which was also a curse on back! Wratha's lips. He set traps for flyers, decoys for warriors, In Turgosheim's Sunside it had been very different. and had crossbows and devastating explosive weapons There the Szgany were docile, cowed, supplicant which fired lethal silver pellets to penetrate and poison creatures. Sullenly but without any real objection, they vampire flesh. had given to the Wamphyri and would never dare refuse And tonight's raid? Another flyer pierced through its them or even hint at fighting back. So that Turgosheim's neck with a bolt from a giant crossbow; its lieutenant Lords had been able to use Sunside and its inhabitants rider knocked out of his saddle and doubtless dealt with like a vast larder to plunder at will, and had even operated by the defenders of that tottering, derelict pile; the flyer a tithe-system designed to ensure a fair split of the spoils; itself shrilling like the wind off the Icelands in not only of human 'spoils, but of all good things out of Wrathspire's turrets, raining its vital fluids, finally Sunside. For there in the east even the so-called 'free' men crashing in the Sunside foothills . . . a total loss. And of the Szgany spun cloth and forged for their masters; they fashioned their clothes and 412 413 Sunside to improve their lot in the last aerie of the weapons for them; they farmed, hunted and gathered for Wamphyri. At first they had worked as a team, but that them ... and they bred for them, of course. hadn't lasted. Arguments had split them up; old scars had But the Wamphyri of Turgosheim had been greedy, started itching anew; old scores still required settling. destructive masters; to a man, they'd lived for today That was why Wran and Vasagi had fought their duel on without a thought for tomorrow. And over the course of Sunside, from which only Wran had returned. But other hundreds of years Wamphyri depredations had cut Szgany feuds were in the offing, Wratha was sure. Vasagi had stock to the bone, until the inhabitants of Tur-gosheim's been an ally of sorts, and now he was no more. And for Sunside had been little more than grubby animals. They all that Wratha was strong and her manse secure, still she were human, but had been debased almost to extinction as knew that she was a woman while the others were all members of that race. And if blood is truly the life, theirs men. Well, men of sorts ... was a trickle thin as water, growing thinner with each new It had been to strengthen her hand - and also to avenge tithe. herself - that Wratha had launched this latest raid on It was just one of several reasons why Wratha and the Settlement; she'd needed strong Lidesci blood for her others had fled out of Turgosheim in the first place: so men and beasts, and a handful of Lidesci thralls wouldn't that they might give free rein to Wamphyri passions in go amiss in Wrathspire, either. Failing, and finding pastures new. But there were other reasons, too. There had herself depleted yet again, she'd ordered her creatures seemed no future in Turgosheim, where the upper echelon home while she herself rode a high wild wind and raged was so firmly ensconced as to be irremovable, while the into the night. And anyone who had seen her would lower orders were falling into a gradual decline, just like know why men were careful in their dealings with the the people they victimized. Lady Wratha. Except no one had seen her. But far to the west: But as Wratha had calmed herself and descended from Rumours had told of a vast and sprawling land of the turbulence of upper air to float on the blustery plenty, of milk and honey and rich red blood! And these thermals over the high crags, she had seen Nestor and were rumours which the Lady Wratha couldn't ignore. Glina. Then, using her mentalism to explore Nestor's Determined to discover the truth of it for herself, also to mind - knowing what he was doing and how he was escape from Turgosheim's claustrophobic constraints, she enjoying it - she'd barely been able to control a second had drawn together a crew of malcontents much like bout of furious raging. Nestor was with some chit out of herself: Vasagi the Suck, Wran the Rage and his brother Sunside, some Szgany slut, filling her to brimming. He Spiro Killglance, Gorvi the Guile, and Canker Canison; was with . . . a mere girl, when he could have been with and all of them had commenced in secret to make flyers Wratha! and forbidden aerial warriors like none seen before, all Withdrawing from the lurid churning and throbbing of with stamina enough to carry them and their makers over his mind (but carefully, so that he would never suspect the Great Red Waste into the west. she'd been there) at first she turned her flyer's head So they had arrived here with their lieutenants some towards the highest peaks and Starside. But in eighteen months ago, and had at once begun raiding on 414 415 he was? But no, he wasn't, it was just the way he enjoyed another moment, gritting her teeth and giving a vicious coupling with this slut. It was his pleasure. It was the jerk on the reins, she turned back. And in the dark and tingle she had felt in his blood. It was that he wasn't seething quagmire of her undead mind, only one thought making love to Wratha! now: There, it was out: she fancied him. No, she actually This ... this Nestor! And despite herself, she had to lusted after him! Before, there had been plenty of time; know more about him and the way he was with women. she had known that Nestor would come to her Landing her flyer some hundred yards away, knowing eventually; following which she would soon tire of him that the wind's bluster would cover the slither of scree as and send him away. But now ... the hovering beast touched down, Wratha dismounted and ... Time had run out. He had not come to her. He had hurried to the saddle where she'd seen them together in taken a woman who pleased him. A dull, stupid, even the heather. And keeping her mind tightly guarded, plain Szgany bitch, but she pleased him! And Wratha felt peering through a gap where jagged fangs of rock leaned pangs she had never known before, which might be the together, she spied upon the ... the lovers? acid burn of jealousy, or possibly the bittersweet sting of And how many times had she spied on him from her . . . love? Yes, perhaps even that. But true love was so high windows, going out upon his flyer to practise? And rare among the Wamphyri it was almost unheard of. And how often had she insinuated herself into his mind, yet Wratha had heard of it, had even seen it for herself. watching him at work and at play? He had his women - of Back in Turgosheim the great Lord Vormulac Taint- course he did: he was Wamphyri! - but he rarely enjoyed spore, called Unsleep, was still in love, despite that his them. Indeed, he was with them much as Wratha was lady had died seventy and more years ago, and he had with her love-thralls: utterly bored. She'd sent out not slept for all of that time. Such was Vormulac's thoughts to lure him when he was asleep; she'd planted devotion that he'd kept his manse, melancholy Vorm- pictures of herself in his mind, and she had used her spire, like a mausoleum to her memory. vampire art to beguile and fascinate him . . . to no avail, Then there had been Karl the Crag's love for Wratha, for he was na'ive. Not naive as a man, no, but as a Lord of which had destroyed him in the end. It had to, for she'd the Wamphyri, certainly. been ambitious then as she was now, and with Karl in And oh, this fine young body, this oh so beautiful body, the way could never have ascended into the circle of all muscle and fire and energy - all wasted on such as Ladies. But instances such as this were rare, indeed this! Wratha could laugh, but instead felt like crying ... singular. and was at once outraged by the very idea. What, Wratha And with all of these thoughts and plenty of others in the Risen, bawling over a man like some Sunside peasant her head she watched them coupling, and with every jerk girl? At her age and with all of her experience? No man - of Nestor's buttocks or gasp of joy or sweetest pain from not one, none of them - had ever been worth the effort. Glina, her eyes protruded a little more from her head and But this one ... could it be that the figured bone scarp upon her brow burned 416 417 low. And so, before vastly enhanced Wamphyri crimson from their glare. Wratha saw the ways he took emotions could make a fool of her entirely, she backed her, the sheer inexhaustible power of the need driving out of her hiding-place, returned to her flyer and him on, and knew that no man - not even Karl the Crag launched for Wrathstack. - had ever taken her like this. But even as she climbed aloft and sped for that last It was his youth and his passion and his lust, and it was lone fang of rock against its backdrop of diamond stars, every erotic dream he had ever dreamed; all of it bursting blue-sheen horizon and shifting, sighing auroral curtain, out of him now, amplified by his vampire leech to Wratha knew in her heart that nothing would be quite the previously inaccessible, undreamed heights. And: same from this time forward. Because for the very first If he is not careful, Wratha thought, he might easily time in her too-long life and undeath, she was sure that fuck that girl to death! (Ah, but Nestor knew what that she actually did have a heart after all. . . would mean, and it was not a mistake he'd make twice.) Wratha's nipples were hard as callouses yet sensitive as In Suckscar that sundown (a 'night' which lasted as long open sores where almost unconsciously she squeezed as three days in an unsuspected world beyond the so- them through her robe, and she felt the bud of her sex called hell-lands Gate), Nestor made Glina his first stiffening to a small finger as her hand stole down to her woman. But first he waited until the fever had gone out mass of black ringlets and into the cleft of love. And of her and her eyes took on that unmistakable feral look. Wratha the Risen - even the Lady Wratha herself And the fact of it was, her vampirism enhanced her; - stood trembling, panting and masturbating as she not to the fantastic extent of Wamphyri enhancement and watched Nestor shudder to a climax, the way his seed metamorphism, but it did lend her a certain elegance of spurted from the corners of Glina's mouth. motion in place of the clumsiness she'd displayed before, Then, it was over. Nestor fell back and lay sprawled on and a sort of sensual intelligence or self-awareness which the heather; Glina took up an infant, hugged it to her her master found disconcerting in a girl who had been so bruised breasts, covered herself and the child with furs dull. She was his thrall now - a vampire, yes - but and curled up to sleep. They were like young animals, paradoxically, there seemed a lot more of the Gypsy in making love until they were exhausted and then sleeping her, too, than was previously apparent. His bite - which it off. And suddenly the Lady Wratha was exhausted, too. changed other women into blood-lusting creatures, none She had brought herself to orgasm, right along with of whom could ever be trusted entirely, certainly not in Nestor, but all it had left in her was a dull ache, by no their instincts and thoughts - had changed a mainly naive means the relief which had blossomed like a weird night girl more truly into a woman. She had been, in Canker orchid in his mind and body. Canison's eyes, 'a dumpling'; she still was, but was now Again Wratha felt like crying, the furious sting of tears more nearly edible. trying to be shed, and again she detested herself for it; but Conducting her through Suckscar, and making the reflected blaze of her eyes under their scarp of bone was lacklustre now, like a lamp turned 419 418 known to his males the role she would play in the manse, feet first, into the meal grinders. And since these were Nestor fancied that his lieutenants and senior thralls found simple thralls, he had allowed Glina to be in attendance the swivel of her more than ample hips attractive, her when he instructed them in this fashion, so that she took glance alluring. But it could be that they desired to keep it that indeed he valued her beyond all the other women. on her good side, because she was a favourite of their And her step grew a little lighter by virtue of that fact. master and would now control the comings and goings of She was given her own rooms directly beneath Nestor's all the other women. in an excavated area under the sweeping stairs to his Finally he introduced her to his female thralls, each by apartments, with a narrow spiral staircase that climbed name, and told them that from now on she would be in up to an annexe off his bedchamber, and even had an charge of their work roster, overseeing all of their duties. older woman assigned to her to clean her rooms and Glina's word would be law among them; let anyone mind the child. So that Glina's lot was in every respect complain, make difficulties or put obstacles in her way, superior to any other woman's in all Suckscar. And so she would report that fact to Nestor and he would know she took up her new life and duties, and quickly learned how to correct the situation. But all of his thralls knew all that was required of her . . . at least with regard to her him now, how he meant what he said, and none of them mundane responsibilities, within the manse. were about to make difficulties. Then, before the next sundown as she lay in her bed Then, while Glina familiarized herself with her new and wondered about Nestor where he slept somewhere duties, he went alone to his senior thralls and lieutenants overhead, suddenly she heard his call, or felt it, and and warned them off. What the dog-Lord had said to him, knew that he wanted her. And climbing the spiral or hinted, about the more ambitious of his men lusting staircase to his chambers, she entered his bedroom ... after power and position, had struck a chord. Perhaps he ... Only to discover that two others were there before had allowed too much freedom in Suckscar, and the reins her! must now be tightened; his lieutenants were the first to Nestor saw the look on her face and quickly cautioned feel his telepathic scrutiny. her: 'Say nothing. Do not offend me or mine. These girls But Zahar and Grig had learned their lessons well; they are here to be instructed - by you! For although they are harboured no real ambitions in respect of Suckscar, nor beautiful, they have forgotten the part which made them did they seek to seduce Nestor's women. What? Was it innocent and beguiling women. For there is innocence likely they would cross a man who could torture them even in sex, but there is no satisfaction in sex with such as alive, then torture them dead? No, for they knew that these, whose nature it is to be promiscuous. That is why Nestor was a necromancer. you are here: to teach them the art of innocence, naivety.' As for his lesser male thralls: She was bewildered. 'But I don't have that art.' His message to them was simple. Glina was now the 'But you do, for you satisfy me. And when they have first of his women in Suckscar. She was his. If any man so much as looked at her lustfully, Nestor would first feed his parts to a warrior, then feed him, slowly and 420 421 learned it from you, then part of my life at least shall be complete.' IV 'You want me to show them how to -?' '- Yes,' he cut her short. 'I want you to show them Wratha's Vow - Gorvi's Proposition everything, Glina, while you still can. For as yet you're more woman than vampire, and I have been bored in my bed for far too long. My needs are not well served here.' Now at last she saw her true position in Suckscar. But In the heights of Wrathspire, Wratha the Risen brooded. she was his thrall and must obey. And she did. Like a great black cloud she brooded, roiling and rumbling and constantly threatening rain. Except the Lady And so the last flickering spark which yet remained in Wratha's rain burned like acid! Six months and more she Glina Berea, which might even have been rekindled into had been this way, while her thralls went in fear of their love of sorts, however dark and strange, died in her that lives. Plainly she was distracted and they had learned to time. For she knew that whatever course her life took leave her that way. Only break into her train of thoughts from this point forward, she would never forget the and draw her back to reality, however briefly . . . all hell events which had befallen her: the fact that she was now a would break loose! She would fly into a rage, hurl abuse vampire, the similar fate of her mother and father, and other things, and rush through the manse like a residents now in Mangemanse, the monstrous burning of lunatic storm, bowling everything over in her passing and her child. issuing the direst threats left, right and centre, at all and Probably, the time would never come when she might sundry. take her revenge. But if it ever did - For Wratha had a great many things on her mind, - Then she wouJd take it. . . which demanded her utmost concentration and mental co- ordination; or so she was given to excuse herself -which in itself was strange, for as a Lady of the Wamphyri she scarcely required to make excuse for anything! But it was obvious that in fact her co-ordination was in tatters and her concentration non-existent. Something, it seemed, was stretching the Lady's nerves to breaking. She had lost all interest in the administration of Wrathspire, so that her lieutenants had never known such freedom in the running of the place. No domestic problem or dispute could be permitted to disturb her, 423 no slightest whisper or unaccustomed jangle of sound, no down into Suckscar, to worm their way into Nestor's unexpected footfall. She fell behind in her self-allotted dreaming mind. Before, this had been little more than an duties (mainly the all-important overseeing of the aerie amusement: it had titillated Wratha to read his sleeping itself), and the orders-group meetings which had always thoughts (or occasionally, when he was with a woman, been such a regular feature of life in Wrath-spire became his lustfully active thoughts; but rarely, because more fewer and fewer, until they ceased entirely. often than not his women bored him, which pleased her). Her males - almost all of them, from the lowliest But now .. . it was no longer an amusement but an agony, novice to the most senior lieutenant - began to take and the Szgany girl Glina was the source of Wratha's advantage; likewise her vampire women. Lustful affairs, pain. For she had known Nestor as a man, while Wratha which Wratha had kept to a minimum for all that she had not. knew her thralls must amuse themselves as best they She was an artless shad at best, this Glina, yet could, swiftly gathered impetus; schedules suffered as a apparently there was one art which she had mastered: the direct result; Wratha scarcely noticed. pleasuring of the necromancer Lord Nestor Lich-loathe of Her love thralls could not satisfy her; when the best of the Wamphyri; mastered it to such an extent that them failed her, she murdered him in her bed. And the Suckscar's new Lord even required her to instruct his others grew thin. other women in order that they, too, might satisfy him. The aerie quickly went to pieces. Grotesque si-phoneers Except they were mainly incapable of instruction, for in their discreetly curtained niches developed sores and they had long since lost what Glina retained: that very parasitic infestations, and the water they drew up from artlessness which Wratha so despised! Guilesump's wells became less than pure, because their It was that she was nai've, or pretended to be because it wayward keeper serviced a woman instead of the pleased him. Her sex was always fresh, quivering, half- flaccidly insensate creatures in his keep. Foetal warriors afraid, yet full of longing. She was a woman but waxing in their vats went untended, and one of them even continued to play the girl, the innocent, so that her Lord slumped, expired and eventually stank, because no one would need no other. For when he was with her he was saw fit to drain the huge corpse of its corruptible wastes the untried youth again, jerking erect as he stroked her and morbid fluids. Cooks in their kitchens made do with teats or bruised them in his passion. what little was available, but the manse's fare was less It was as if he remembered a time when love -human than satisfactory. Pantries and cold-storage rooms stood love, Szgany love - had been something other than lust empty, likewise the granaries. Flyers went mewling and was trying to recapture it. Or . . . perhaps it was that hungry, and in the raids on Sunside were wont to grow he remembered some other lover, not this Glina, and was weary and unreliable. trying to recapture her! And through all of this, apparently unaware, Wratha And as soon as that thought came to Wratha, then she merely brooded ... knew she was on the right track. For it made sense out of But during the long days when the rest of the stack a paradox: how Nestor could fancy - and continue to slept, then she would sit up and send her thoughts fancy - this merely homely creature when he 424 425 was surrounded by girls of Vasagi the Suck's choice; for how best to deal with her! And she would deal with Vasagi had installed most of the women who dwelled now her, most certainly. It was her vow ... in Suckscar, and for all that he'd been a monster in his own right, the Suck had had an eye for beauty. But the In that same six-month period of twenty-six sunups, difference was this: that Glina had actually loved Nestor Nestor's fame or infamy as a necromancer had spread upon a time. And for all that she had been a novice through all of the stack. In every manse from Guilesump herself, still she had taught him all he knew. Now . . . he to Wrathspire, his talent was the subject of gossip and knew other things, but still he remembered how it had speculation. The former among the lieutenants of the been with Glina. While his brain may have forgotten Wamphyri and lesser thralls, and the latter among the much of his past, his body continued to remember. And vampire Lords themselves. not only Glina, but someone before her. Canker Canison was mainly to blame for spreading Oh, Wratha knew their history well enough; she'd the word. Pleased to call himself Nestor's friend, he was stolen it right out of their minds! She knew that Glina had 'proud' of the comparative newcomer and desired to see been Nestor's Sunside lover, for she had seen pictures him elevated among his peers. For the dog-Lord had the from his past replayed a dozen times in the eye of his dubious gift of scrying future times, and he had foreseen mind. But more than this, she knew there was a fury in that Nestor's talent would make him very powerful, a him when he made love to Glina, which he would rather force to be reckoned with in the last aerie. expend on this unknown Other. Some unrequited love out And Canker was right. of his unremembered past? It could only be . . . Late one sundown after a full night's raiding on Whoever she was, this Other, it seemed to Wratha she Sunside, when the Lady and all the Lords were safely was worthy of serious consideration; for if Nestor returned to their various manses, the lieutenant Grig Lichloathe had found and brought back Glina out of Lichloathe made report to Nestor in the quiet room Sunside - and out of his more recent past - then one day where he rested from his bloody work. There the Lord he might also find and bring back the Other, too, from a of Suckscar stretched out in a huge wickerwork chair, yet more distant period. And what then? All of Wratha's sipped coarse Szgany wine and watched the grey glimmer plans gone up in smoke? No, not at all, for by then Nestor of a false dawn creeping on the distant crags. Nestor would belong to Wratha! was reluctant to go to his bed because for months his As for this Glina: what was she? Simple: she was dreams had been made wretched by recurrent erotic nothing! What, this ungainly Szgany peasant? She was a visions ... mainly of Wratha the Risen. Over and over he flame that would soon flicker and die; a piece of would revisit Wrathspire's roof to play out that scene tarnished property, a tool to be used, blunted, and where Wratha had fallen into his arms, but only to eventually discarded. Ah, but if or when Wratha should escape from him when she felt his surging ardour. ever set eyes on this Other, be sure she would know And when he started awake from dreams such as 426 427 this, all drenched in sweat and whining his frustration - Gorvisman prowled to and fro, three paces this way and and with the soft curve of Wratha's breast still warm in three back, between six of Nestor's senior thralls. They his tingling palm - then Nestor would put aside all were armed and he was not. It would not have been thoughts of his other women, Glina included, as if they seemly - indeed, it would not have been allowed -to were nothing. For he knew now what he wanted, if not bring a gauntlet into another's manse. A huge man as how to get it. Also, he was prideful. Wratha had made a most lieutenants were, Turgis's message was brief and fool of him once, and Nestor wasn't about to let it happen his voice a fair imitation of the rumbling growl of a again. Sunside bear as he said: 'Lord Nestor of Suckscar, my The trouble with Wratha the Risen was this: she liked master Gorvi the Guile proposes a meeting with you. He to toy with her men, and all the men of Wrathstack knew would discuss business: a matter of mutual interest, it. Still, Wran Killglance would have her if he could, and which might possibly lead to huge profits for both of Gorvi the Guile if he thought it would strengthen his you.' hand. As for Canker Canison: the dog-thing had openly 'Indeed,' Nestor answered, inclining his head. 'And the admitted that he would swap half of the whelps in nature of this ... business?' Mangemanse - even his own flesh and blood - for just The other shrugged, and growled wryly: 'Hah! That one good ride on Wratha! But there was her reputation to will be the night, when Gorvi the Guile shares his consider, which was that of a certain spider: the sort that thoughts with lieutenants or lesser persons! But this lures a male with her sex before she devours him! How much I know: my master has heard it rumoured that you may one mate with a maneater? With a great deal of are a necromancer, with the power to talk to dead men.' care, the Lord of Suckscar was sure ... Nestor nodded. 'He wishes to avail himself of my These were some of the necromancer's thoughts as his talent, then. And where will this meeting take place?' man Grig Lichloathe approached, bowed, and shuffled 'In Guilesump, naturally.' his feet until he had his master's attention. And finally: But: 'Ah, no!' Nestor shook his head, and smiled a 'What is it?' Nestor spoke softly, as was now his wont. slow, knowing smile. 'If at all, it will take place here, in 'A flyer has landed in the main bay, Lord,' Grig Suckscar.' answered. Turgis Gorvisman is here with a message 'I very much doubt it,' said the other. 'For the Guile from his master.' seldom leaves his manse except to raid on Sunside, or 'From Gorvi?' Nestor lifted an eyebrow. 'And have when he inspects his creatures where they prowl abroad you left the lieutenant waiting?' near the foot of the stack. He prefers accustomed places, 'Yes, Lord.' in order to maintain a measure of control. He takes no Nestor stood up. Then take me to him. Let's see what's chances.' on the Lord of Guilesump's mind.' 'In this we are not dissimilar,' Nestor replied. 'Now go In a walled staging area over the landing-bay, Turgis back and tell your master that I'll meet him an hour from now out on the boulder plains, due north of 428 429 Wrathstack and just a mile from its foot. In fact, we'll a flyer. Only Gorvi could look like that: a great evil meet in the shadow of the stack itself.' scarecrow of a man hunched in the saddle, his cloak 'At sunup?' The lieutenant's gaze went out over the flapping like the wings of a huge black bat. The other wall and across the mighty gulf of air, high over Starside to Lords were sinister, naturally, but Gorvi the Guile was the barrier mountains. sinister. 'The sun never shines on the boulder plains, fool,' And with certain reservations, Nestor had sped after Nestor retorted, but quietly. 'Anyway, we'll be meeting him. in the shadow of the stack, as I said.' For of course, Gorvi had been the one who would 'I heard and understood you,' the other answered. 'But have made trouble for Nestor when first he came here I also know that Gorvi hates to be abroad when the sun out of Sunside. And it was Gorvi who had suggested a rises over Sunside. It is his nature.' trial period, following which Nestor would either be Nestor turned away. 'It is the nature of each and every accepted . . . or dropped. Probably from a very great one of us, to fear the sun,' he said. 'Also, it's our nature to height! argue, and to have our own way. Gorvi desires to talk Well, it hadn't come to that, but neither had Nestor business with me; very well, I've named the place and forgotten. And now the Guile wanted something from time. Just the two of us. No gauntlets, lieutenants or him. All well and good - but nothing for nothing, be warriors. If this is satisfactory, he'll be there. If not...' sure. He made to go back inside. Nestor landed his flyer on a shale hillock some 'I can only tell him what you have said,' Turgis seventy yards from where Gorvi stood beside his own nodded, and started down a ladder to the landing-bay. beast. Dismounting, he glanced all about, and turned his 'Who knows, he might even agree.' eyes on Wrathstack a mile away. Possibly they had been Nestor paused and glanced over his shoulder, and seen flying out and were even now spied upon. He felt the stared into Turgis's eyes before he disappeared from shields go up in Gorvi's mind and applied his own. Their view. 'Those are the arrangements,' he said. 'If Gorvi thoughts were now guarded. doesn't like them, he can wait a six-month before And striding out towards each other, they and their approaching me again. Time is in short supply. I can long shadows soon came together in the greater shadow of think of better ways to waste it than in arguing meeting the last aerie. They looked at each other a moment or two: places with Gorvi the Guile.' Gorvi tall, slender, with the dome of his skull-head shaven 'So be it,' the other's answer came back to him. except for a single central lock with a knot hanging to And in a little while, Turgis Gorvisman launched out the rear; dressed in black, as always, so that the contrast and down from Suckscar ... of his sallow flesh made him look fresh-risen from death; and his eyes so deeply sunken they were little Gorvi was there. Nestor had watched from a north-facing more than crimson jewel glimmers in their black orbits, window and had seen the Guile speed out upon yet shifty for all that. And Nestor: not quite so tall but well fleshed-out and handsome as 430 431 hell, and open as a door left banging in the wind . . . or 'Huh!' Gorvi snorted. 'And they call me the Guile!' open by Wamphyri standards, at least. Then: But in a little while: 'Very well, I do have a man - or the 'Well?' said Nestor. 'And do you have business with body of a man - who has or did have secrets. And yes, it me? Or is it that you've decided I didn't quite "get there" would be in my interest to know the things he knew. after all, and now you'd like to throw me out to fend for Indeed I would give a lot to know them. Even so much as myself in the stumps of the fallen stacks and scramble for half of the profits.' a living in the scree and the rubble of Starside?' And he 'An even split?' laughed a quiet, humourless laugh. 'Ah, but that will be Gorvi nodded. the day, Gorvi!' 'But of what?' That's all over and done with.' Gorvi's voice was oily 'Knowledge! Flesh and blood! Red revenge! Women as ever as he held up a slender but wickedly taloned hand for your bed! And sly, taunting laughter on our lips in a gesture intended as placatory. when the others see what we've achieved! All of these 'Forgotten by you, perhaps,' Nestor answered in his things and more.' Gorvi grinned to show his needle teeth quiet fashion. and crimson gums. 'Well, what do you say?' Gorvi threw up his hands. 'I came out here against my 'I say you've told me nothing, as yet.' best instincts to meet you as a friend, a colleague, even a 'Very well,' said Gorvi. 'Now hear my story. Almost partner! Now tell me: how may I make known to you the two years ago, when first Wratha led us here out of the details of the ... the matter in hand, if you insist on east, our first raids on Sunside were against a pair of scowling, carping and mulling over ancient, best- Szgany townships named Twin Fords and Settlement. forgotten scores? Anyway, what are you complaining And that was when we first learned that there are Szgany about? You did "get there" in the end, didn't you? What? and Szgany. In Turgosheim's Sunside, for over a hundred And if I had not set a limit on your ascension, can you years, our prey had given us no real trouble. But here honestly believe that the others would not have done so?' they fought back! We lost flyers and men that night, Nestor smiled his slow, cold smile and said: 'Don't which we could scarcely afford. Indeed, we lost almost waste my time, Gorvi. Why don't you get to the point? all of our lieutenants. And we vowed revenge! What is it you want from me? Who do you want me to ... The first of our losses happened in Twin Fords, and examine?' we Lords were lucky that we weren't among them! The The Guile tried not to look too surprised, but Nestor men of Twin Fords - some of them at least - knew what saw how his eyes narrowed. And eventually, carefully, they were doing; they'd had dealings with vampires Gorvi said: 'But you've been talking to my man, Turgis.' before. They had crossbows, which had been forbidden 'Isn't that why you sent him to me?' Nestor raised an in the east since Turgo Zolte's time. Tipped with silver eyebrow. 'Perhaps you should have cut his tongue out, and and steeped in kneblasch, their bolts were of ironwood. sent him to me dumb! Turgis told me nothing - except that Also, they wore long knives in their belts and were you were interested in my necromancy. That was enough.' equipped with sharp wooden stakes! 'Vasagi the Suck took a bolt in the side, but to him it 432 433 was little more than a scratch. And in any case, Vasagi ance of the stack - huh! And some play a greater part than was a master of metamorphism; he would quickly shed others, too! - but as for the rest of it, we're on our own. the poisoned flesh and replenish himself. The fact that But there, I've strayed a little from my story. he'd been shot at all, however, had come as something of 'So, Wratha rewarded us by turning us loose on the a shock. And as I said, the rest of us were lucky. We second Szgany town, this veritable fortress of a place were lucky, aye, but as for our lads .. . the majority of called Settlement. Well, she and the others were straight our lieutenants went down and stayed down. into it, no warning and no quarter given. But as for 'Ah, but didn't we make them pay for it? You can be myself ... right from the start I hadn't liked the look of it. sure we did! We wrecked their town, ordered our warriors Especially not after the trouble we'd had in Twin Fords. down onto their houses to crush them flat, made as many 'Now, Settlement stands in the mid-west, directly changeling vampire thralls as we could, and instructed below the foothills at the edge of the forest. The entire them to report to us with all their goods in Starside town is housed within a massive timber stockade with before the dawn. Canker Canison ravaged with a watchtowers and four huge gates, and giant crossbows vengeance; the Killglance twins raged like the madmen mounted on the battlements...' Gorvi paused and frowned. they are, naturally; and the Lady Wratha ... well, she was 'But ... why do I concern myself to tell you all of this? wrathful! As for the town: we'd turned it to a shambles Surely you must know something of Settlement from your and it was the beginning of the end for Twin Fords. But Szgany days?' A moment more and he snapped his thin it hadn't even started yet for Settlement... fingers. 'Ah, no! I remember now: you have no memory That first town was serious work. It had been before the time of Wran and Vasagi's duel. necessary to recruit thralls and lieutenants, have them fill 'A pity, for if you had, perhaps you would also have our manses with all the good things out of Sunside, and the answers to my questions ... without that you must set them to work for us in Wrathstack the last aerie, to torture the dead for them!' make it liveable. And despite our losses, in the main Nestor shrugged. 'I still don't know what your we'd been successful. Szgany losses were far greater, and questions are.' what are a few lieutenants after all? Still, it had been Til get to it,' Gorvi told him. And after a moment: serious work. But Settlement would be for fun. So we That first night, after Twin Fords, I let the others go thought... ahead and raid on Settlement while I settled for smaller 'It was Wratha's idea. She must have thought: "Now prey. There was a house on a knoll in the foothills, that my dogs have done their work, maybe it's time I let overlooking the town. I had seen its lights, however them off the leash a little." For we were Wratha's briefly, from on high. But as we stationed our aerial renegades then, do you see? And we might have been warriors windward of the town behind a jut of crags, even now, if she wasn't such a thief. But that woman ... landed our flyers in the hills and called up a mist, so for every four we recruited, she stole one away! That's what broke us up, and that's the way we've stayed. Oh, each of us has a part to play in the mainten- 434 435 the lights were extinguished. It made me suspect that 'But I was wounded and that concerned me. Cut with just like the people of Twin Fords, these Settlement folk silver, my ribs and arm would take a while in the healing. had also had dealings with vampires. All the more The hunt was over where I was concerned. I drank from reason to steer clear of the town ... the lad, only a little but enough, bundled him into my 'Well, I'll cut a long story short. While Wratha and the flyer's pouch and launched for Starside and Guilesump. others fell on the town, I made straight for the place on 'So my captive became a common thrall, and went the knoll. And without pause I landed my flyer on top about his menial tasks for a month or two in the basement of the house and crushed it, then looked for survivors in levels of the last aerie. But later, when it became clear the rubble. There was no one there. But scanning all how extraordinary were these Settlement folk - like thorns about, I discovered a woman hiding in a stand of trees in Wamphyri flesh - then I considered him again. behind the broken house. She knew I had spotted her, 'The trouble with the Szgany Lidesci is this: they have a made a run for it and ran right into me! She was mature, superb leader, a man called Lardis. Thralls taken from good-looking, and had a fine body on her. I would have other towns and camps have informed us that Lardis was a struck her down at once, there and then -taken her for young chief in the old days, in the time of the Old my thrall, and taken her, too - if not for an interruption. Wamphyri. Now he is an old chief, and so much wiser. 'A youth, no older than you yourself, Nestor, had No one knows our ways better than he does, and no one is come up from the town. He was the woman's son, better trained and equipped to kill us! Indeed, that's his surely. And he attacked me! One man, or callow youth, vow: to destroy the Wamphyri utterly, every last one of and he dared to attack Gorvi the Guile! It was us. But he won't, because he can't. And even if he could, astonishing. Ah, but he had a knife! The blade of his we would destroy him first. weapon was coated with deadly silver, which burned me 'But ... how may we go about it? What are his where it glanced off my ribs and sliced my forearm. weaknesses? Apparently, he has none! And his strengths? And meanwhile the woman had found a hatchet! Well, to start with he has Settlement. Yes, it's still there! 'Somehow I had been unarmed, my gauntlet had However much we tried to destroy the town during those slipped from my bloodied forearm. And these people ... early nights, in the long days that followed Lardis would how they could fight! The one with a knife and the build it up again. Except the houses are now traps for other with her axe! Suddenly I was in trouble, and so flyers and sometimes warriors, and there are twice as called out to my flyer: "Roll on them, crush them!" many crossbows on the stockade wall. So now Settlement The clumsy beast made to obey me. Thrusting itself exists solely as a lure for unwary vampires, and you could out of the shambles of the house, it struck the woman be forgiven for asking: why don't we simply avoid it? But with a wing tip and knocked her over the rim of the to know that there are men there - and probably women, knoll in its steepest part. She disappeared with a cry too - through the long dark nights, is in itself a lure! It is into darkness. That left the youth, and a single clout as if Lardis stunned him. 436 437 were flaunting himself, saying "Come and get me!" And 'What?' Gorvi's mouth gaped open. 'Are you sure? oh, we would dearly love to. How can you be sure?' 'For there's good rich fighting blood in these Lidescis, 'Because .. . because I knew him,' Nestor answered. Nestor. Good lieutenants in the making, good strong 'Jason, the house on the knoll, the town, everything! As women for the loving, good flesh for the fashioning. And you described it, so I remembered it. Some of it, I think.' apart from all that, there's revenge! For do you know, But already the dazed look had crept back onto his face. while we got thralls out of Twin Fords that first night, we He groaned, clenched his teeth, and slammed a fist like a got nothing out of Settlement but a bad taste in our rock into the palm of his hand, then cursed and turned mouths! Well, our get amounted to a handful at best. And away. 'It comes and it goes. One minute I see ... things, of course there was this Jason, which I took from the and the next they're forgotten.' house on the knoll. But damn few thralls out of 'Our greatest enemy's son!' Gorvi clapped a hand to his Settlement, and that's how it stands to this day. This pallid forehead. 'I might have known it! He was trouble Lardis Lidesci, he hunts changelings down with a will, from the very start! Surly, difficult and defiant. And when and burns them before they can make it across the barrier I sent for him, to question him about the Szgany Lidesci - mountains. So that now he's as much a legend as we are!' that is, after they had become important to us - then he Gorvi paused again, and glanced sideways at Nestor's tried to make his escape from Guilesump and set out over face in an attempt to gauge his thoughts ... then looked the boulder plains for Sunside. Which would have been again, more sharply. the end of him, of course, for the sun would have done And: 'Is something the matter?' Gorvi queried. For a for him. Except it didn't come to that. peculiar, faraway look had come over Nestor's face, and 'I have warriors who guard the stack from ground he'd turned his head and eyes to gaze towards the south- attack. They drove him back and my lieutenants went to west. In the direction of Settlement, in fact. pick him up. No such luck! He dodged them, came back 'Jason, did you say?' Nestor's voice had also undergone to Wrathstack and commenced to climb it by an exterior a change; it was uncertain, faltering. Blinking his scarlet route. It was the worst possible move; on the approach to eyes, he stroked his temples and issued a small moan, as Madmanse the climb peters out, and the face leans into an if he felt a pain. 'This one you took from the house on the overhang. But why did he climb? To what end? He would knoll — Jason?' either fall or be retaken by a flyer, and he would be mine 'Aye,' Gorvi nodded, frowning now. 'What of it?' dead or alive. Well, I was soon to learn why he made for And again the look of pain on Nestor's face. But not the heights. It was because he intended to kill himself! truly a physical pain. Merely that of remembering. Then 'Such is the fighting spirit of these people. Rather than . . . it came to him in a flash! And: 'Jason Lidesci,' he said. divulge the secrets of the Szgany Lidesci, this Jason - 'Lardis Lidesci's son! That house you destroyed on the Lardis's son, you say? - would climb up to a high place knoll: it was the Old Lidesci's place. You had your and throw himself down. And that's exactly greatest enemy's son in the palm of your hand, and you didn't even know it!' 439 438 what he did. Moreover, he had a sliver of ironwood with 'It would appear to make sense,' Nestor nodded. 'But him which he held against his heart. When he crashed tell me: just where would you have me perform my ... down it was driven into him and that was the end. For examination of this Jason Lidesci?' In his weird and after all, even a vampire is only flesh and blood .. . damaged mind, all memories of Settlement in a previous 'He had fallen some one hundred and eighty feet onto a time had faded away again, but he felt the place had wide ledge and was dead in the instant he hit. I left him strong connections with his old, unknown enemy. With there as a warning to others. But as you know, Starside's him and with someone Nestor had loved very dearly, air is sharp and desiccating. Things rarely rot here but who had betrayed him in favour of that same old shrivel and mummify. As we are wont to say, dead men adversary. "stiffen to stones". There are no carrion-eating birds here, But Settlement? Had his betrayal - and the damage to and there was no way up to the body for my bulky earth- his mind, which had robbed him of his past - had it really bound warriors, which might otherwise devour it. So . . . I happened there? So far in his raiding on Sunside, Nestor left him there. Until a few hours ago. had avoided Settlement. He'd told himself it was out of 'For recently I have heard it rumoured that you have respect for those same fierce Travellers which Gorvi had the skills of a necromancer and torture dead men for their mentioned, the Lidescis. And indeed their name seemed secrets. And that's why I've come here, against my better far too familiar on his tongue. Only speak it . . . visions instincts, out onto the boulder plains at sunup to talk to would pass like the streaks of shooting stars across his you. I want you to talk to him, and discover the secrets of mind. Not memories as such, but monochrome scenes - the Szgany Lidesci!' bursts of white light and black silhouette, burning like Nestor was almost himself again. 'What secrets, after-images on his scarlet retinas - of mighty stockade exactly?' walls and towers, with foothills looming on the one hand 'Why, is it not obvious?' Gorvi raised his eyebrows. and dark forests on the other. But then there would be 'Now listen. The reason this Lardis and his people are pain - in his brain, his very mind -and the scenes would such a nuisance to us is simple: by daylight they're up and shatter into fragments like a piece of slate broken against a about setting traps and such in Settlement and the regions boulder. around, and then by night they vanish into their hiding These uneasy thoughts of Nestor's had taken but a places which we haven't yet found. What I want to know moment, by which time Gorvi had answered, 'Where will - or rather what we, you and I, need to know - is this: you examine him? Why, in Guilesump, where else? For where do they go to, and where and when are they at their that's where Jason's body is. I have his body, and you most vulnerable? As soon as we discover these things, have the talent.' then we shall raid on them with as much force as we can Nestor looked at him. 'You'd have me enter your muster and make them ours. For once they're scattered, manse of my own free will? Ah, no. I prefer a neutral then they're finished. We can pick them off at our leisure.' place.' Gorvi scowled. 'Where then?' Nestor thought about it. 'In the glare of the hell-lands 440 441 'Two years,' the other shrugged, 'but not uselessly. Gate, in the first hour of the next sundown . . . " He Whenever I had a difficult thrall - it happens occasionally paused and thought again. 'No, better than that, we'll - I would take him to a high window and let him look wait until all of the others have gone off raiding on down on this one, and ask him if he could walk upon the Sunside. Then, you'll fly to the Gate alone - well, with a air like the Wamphyri. For as you must know, we Lords dead man for company - and I shall follow on behind. can fly when we must, but common thralls and And we'll see what we'll see.' lieutenants can't. The sight of this Jason all crumpled Gorvi shook his head, looked puzzled, but finally there would usually bring them to their senses. And if agreed. 'So be it.' not. .. there were always other ways.' Following which there was nothing else to say or do. Two years,' Nestor repeated him. 'You must be right: And shortly thereafter in the sky over Starside, twin the air of Starside is sterile, bloodless. It's as if we've manta shapes pulsed and scudded with the clouds for sucked the life right out of the place!' Wrathstack... 'Not us but the barrier mountains.' Again Gorvi's shrug. 'Where there's no light there's little or no life. But In fact it was three hours after true sundown before the rest of the inhabitants of the last aerie had departed there's always undeath.' Wrathstack to go raiding on Sunside, but Gorvi was 'This is a mummy,' said Nestor. He gazed down on patient and Nestor had all the time in the world. For if the shattered body, though as yet he had not touched it. the truth were known, the necromancer was not sure he 'Are you saying you can't do it?' The Guile stared wanted to know Jason Lidesci's secrets after all; he was hard at him, then at the crumbling corpse. 'Is he too far perhaps afraid that he would learn too much. gone?' But Gorvi flew out as prearranged, and Nestor Nestor looked at him, blinked, and smiled a very terrible followed on. And just within the glare of the hell-lands smile. 'No, not at all,' he answered. 'If he were ashes in Gate, they gentled their flyers to earth and Gorvi got an urn, still I could talk to him. Indeed, he's listening to down the long blanket roll from his beast's side. Opening me even now.' His voice had fallen to a whisper, a dry it, he beckoned Nestor closer. throaty rustling. 'Eh?' Gorvi's jaw dropped. As the Guile had forewarned, the lich was a broken, 'Oh, yes.' Nestor uttered a strange, sad sigh. 'And can't shrivelled thing. Its contorted face told Nestor nothing: it you see? He's trembling, too.' could be anyone's face. It had been badly battered in the The Guile took a pace back from the necromancer, who fall from Guilesump and had dried like a papery wasp's might just be a madman. 'Trembling? But. . . I see nothing!' nest, all crumbling and flaky. And the body and limbs The other went down on his knees. And: 'Seeing,' he were no better. Most of the bones were broken, and said, 'is not the art. Ah, but to feel him trembling, and some protruded like white kindling as from the makings to know it for a fact - that is the true art.' of a fire. And smiling again, he reached out his hands to the 'How long had he laid there, on that ledge?' Nestor shuddering corpse of Jason Lidesci... inquired. 443 442 Nestor's talent; he was satisfied that the youth could actually converse with one who was no more. And V perhaps hoping to eavesdrop on what passed between them, the living and the dead alike, he moved a little Conversation with a Corpse - Nestor and closer. But Nestor's words were deadspeak, which the living cannot hear, as he said: Wratha: The Assignation Jason Lidesci, badly broken though you are - unrecognizable, and forgotten by me as all of my past with the Szgany is forgotten - still I know who you are. And I know that upon a time I knew you as you were. Now I want to know you again. Gorvi the Guile was suddenly aware of a change in the The other said nothing, but Nestor felt him exerting his psychic aether, the atmosphere, the very aura of the place. will and strengthening his resolve - to continue to say Starside in the vicinity of the Gate was a strange region: nothing. what with the blindly vacant glare of the dazzling white Ah.' But that won't work. I know how strong you are. hemisphere portal, like an immense eye in its crater Gorvi has told me how you hurled yourself down from socket, lighting up the sterile soil, blackened boulders and Guilesump before you would talk to him, because you fused slag all about; and the riddled condition of the thought you could only die once. WeJJ, that was true blasted earth and rock around the crater itself, as if a nest enough then. But through me you can feel the pain of death of giant worms had burrowed there; and that weird plume over and over again, as often - or as seldom - as you of softly pulsating luminescence reaching out from the yourself will it. Or as often as I will it. . . Gate to point north like some dumbly accusing foxfire But even though Nestor let the pause stretch itself into finger. All of these things, plus the reason for his being a monstrous threat, all he felt was a further strengthening here, had given Gorvi an unaccustomed feeling of of the other's will. And he found it amazing that for one foreboding. But he suspected that this new sensation, this who was dead, this Jason could be so strong. Well, strong tingle of awareness (but of what?) on the periphery of his for the moment ... but for how much longer? vampire senses, was something other, greater, than any In fact, it wasn't so much Jason's strength that Nestor chance combination of location and circumstance. sensed but his strong inclination to disbelieve. For like More sensitive to sinister influences than Canker certain others of the teeming dead when the necromancer Canison, the Guile sensed the flow of . . . something, first spoke to them, he also doubted this vampire Lord's between Nestor and the lich. And as the necromancer's talent. After all, Jason had neither seen, felt, touched nor hands came down on the corpse's crushed brow and tasted anything since the moment he'd launched himself shrunken chest, so that unknown something increased on his fatal dive from Guilesump's mist-slick wall. He tenfold. In that same instant, Gorvi came to believe in had not even been aware of the grit 444 445 and pebbles which had hammered themselves into his why he feared Nestor and hated the sound of his broken skull and limbs when he struck home, or the deadspeak voice. For the vampire Lord was not dead but wind's bluster about his ledge, or the tiny bats which very much alive; he had a leech; he was Wamphyri, yet he flitted close to inspect his desiccated body, then flew off too was gifted with deadspeak. And if he had that ... what chittering into the gloom. Only the eternal darkness and else did he have? It was this which made Jason tremble. loneliness had touched him, and the only taste he'd All of these thoughts were his, which he fought hard to known was the bitter bile of frustration: that he was dead keep to himself. But finally Nestor smiled his terrible while such as Nestor, Gorvi, and the rest of the smile; for concentrating on Jason's corpse, directing all of Wamphyri lived on to plague his people. his necromancer's powers at the lich, at last he'd broken in So why should he now believe that Nestor Lichloathe on his victim's thoughts and heard or sensed that last could touch him, hurt him, cause him pain? What was fearful query. And knowing that the dead man would hear pain anyway but the shrieking of tortured nerves or him, he repeated his question out loud: ligaments, or the bubbling up of morbid fluids in a sick 'What else do I have? Is that what you want to know? body? And how may one even begin to feel it in nerves Well, perhaps it's time I showed you.' and muscles and veins which have cast off life and Without further pause he took his hand from Jason's stiffened to knots of leathery gristle, or in fluids leeched forehead, caught a papery eyelid between finger and off by the sucking winds, turned to vapour and blown thumb, and tore it free as easily as tearing the fragile wing away? of a moth! It was nothing - oh, a dreadful act, certainly: to But on the other hand: defile a corpse - but nothing that required any real effort. Jason had died a vampire, but knowing how he had To have done it to a living man would have been died and why, the dead had come to accept him. While something else. That would involve a measure of resistance his other senses were sadly defunct, at least he could hear and a guaranteed response. But not from a dead man, the Great Majority when they talked to him. But only surely. For the dead don't feel pain . . . do they? them, until now. And from them he'd heard a good many Well, and now Nestor's victim knew the folly in that things. Oh, he knew that the teeming dead believed in line of reasoning. For Nestor was a necromancer, and Nestor's powers; for he'd heard them time and again Jason did feel it! Felt the blood spurt, the red ruin of his whispering in their graves, terrified that sooner or later face, the impossible agony of that previously insensitive the monster would come for them. Why, there were even but now highly sensitized part torn away like a piece of those among them who swore that they'd already suffered bread from a loaf. Felt it and screamed, screamed, at his hands. But Jason found it hard to credit. screamed! Except ... what of Nestor's deadspeak, which Jason And: 'Ah!' Nestor sighed. 'So you have a voice after all. heard as plain as the voices of the Great Majority? It was I was beginning to think you were dumb. But no, you're one thing for the dead to use that metaphysical medium, merely stupid.' but a Jiving creature? And that was the reason 447 446 Gradually Jason's sobbing shrieks subsided, became The other was puzzled. What? I should tell you what gasps of shock, horror, and finally petered out. Now it you already know? was as if he were a man holding his breath and hiding in 'No, only what I have forgotten. For you see, I have no the dark, but one who knew that his adversary could see memory prior to this. Well, some few fragments of in the dark and knew his every move. Yet still he was memory: of being wounded, a near-drowning, a life in a reticent and Nestor felt not only pain but defiance in him. cabin in the forest, finally of becoming Wamphyri. But of 'Must I hurt you again?' my childhood and my youth, nothing. You are now my memory, or will be. But first tell me this: when I spoke to No! the other's gasp of terror was as real as from a you, you knew who I was without that I first told you. living throat. You are right: I am that Jason you knew in How?' Settlement. I was taken on the night of the first raid, and it seems that you were, too. But you submitted, obviously, and Because there was only one creature you could possibly I didn't. Well, as a child you always played at being be, Jason answered, for you are one of a kind. You are of Wamphyri. It's possible that some might even believe the living — a sort of life, anyway - yet speak the you're the fortunate one. As for me, I don't think so. Even language of the dead, and they fear you for both your dead and miserable, still I prefer it to the living death voice and for your touch. 1 learned your name from them, which is vampirism. For me there is no hell ... except the the teeming dead, only to discover that I had known it one which you vampires have created to inhabit! long before that. For you are the necromancer Lord 'Well said,' Nestor nodded. 'You have a way with Nestor Lichloathe of the Wamphyri, once Nestor Kiklu of words, for all that a great many of them are wasted and the Szgany Lidesci. And we grew up together, in others ill-advised. As for hell: there's a hell for every Settlement. Better if we had died together, too. man, be sure. Didn't I just show you a small corner of It was more or less as Nestor had expected. Except: yours? But let it be. I think I would prefer it if you 'We ... grew up together?' He frowned. 'I have no simply answered my questions, rather than spouting recollection of that...' But in fact in the back of his mind, your defiance and loathing. Do you agree? If not, there a far faint scene was already glowing a little brighter: a are other parts you can lose.' He tugged tentatively at the picture of forest paths and glades, and children, three of tattered web of what had been Jason's left ear. them, laughing at their play. Two boys ... and a girl, they Again the other's gasp, and: No! No! Only ask your were perhaps ten or eleven years old. But the scene was questions. And if I know the answers, I will tell you. viewed through the eyes of a fourth child, which Nestor supposed could only be himself. Out of focus, the picture 'All of the answers?' jogged Nestor's memory a little, but not enough. Also, As much as I know. But still there was an edge of because of the current damage to the corpse of Jason sullen defiance in Jason's deadspeak voice. Nestor Lidesci, Nestor had not managed to identify him as a shrugged. He would see what he would see. member of the small group. And so: 'And so you knew me in Settlement. Very well, tell me my history.' 'Let me see you as you were,' he demanded of the 448 449 trembling lich. And at once, despite that Jason did his bank, and the children as before. Except they seemed a best to stop it, a reflex picture of himself as a child was little older now, and this time there were just the two of mirrored in the eye of his mind; which Nestor saw, of them... course. And now he knew that indeed Jason had been one ... Nathan and Misha. of the children in the forest scene. But the other two? And Nestor a silent, stunned observer now, just as he 'Did you see those children in my mind?' had been then: Yes. The children at a bend in the river, where the rippling 'What were their names?' shallows had formed a beach of yellow sand and white What? And have you also forgotten them? But they shingle. Nathan sitting on a rock, with the woods as a were your closest... backdrop; Misha swimming, laughing, taunting the boy Nestor sighed a false sigh and grasped the other's on the bank. She stood there naked and posturing, lolling bottom jaw. He twisted it just a little, until brittle beckoning, daring him to join her in the river. Sunlight flesh at the right-hand corner of the corpse's mouth began shimmered on her brown pixie body, highlighting her to tear like paper. Which was more than enough for Jason barely formed breasts, glinting on jewel droplets of river Lidesci. For to him it seemed that something was ripping water in the thin black cobweb of her pubic triangle. Not his face apart! quite a child, Misha, but not yet a woman, she was all Ah, no! My /ace! He relapsed into racking sobs. innocence (or not-quite-innocence), where she showed The other two?' herself to this Nathan. Misha! Jason screamed aloud. The girl was Misha And Nestor felt about her now as he had felt then: that Zanesti! And sobbing brokenly, gasping his deadspeak he wanted her, yet at the same time despised her for her agony, he hurriedly went on: As for the boy, he was ... he naivety: that she'd never recognized his feelings. In those was Nathan. But do what you will to me, Nestor, I can't early days he would not have known what to do with her believe you've forgotten him! anyway, but still he'd wanted her, even though her heart 'Misha? Her name was ... Misha?' Nestor's voice was belonged to someone else. He knew it from a tearing suddenly changed. Previously a whisper, now it was inside, as if someone had squeezed his guts: that Misha harsh, choked. And with his eyes bulging as his lips had belonged to Nathan. And he wondered: quivered back from fanglike teeth, he snatched away his Is this really the one, the child, girl, woman who later hands from the dead man. betrayed me? Was it Misha who spurned his love, in that Just how often had the necromancer woken up from time when he'd been capable of true love? But pointless angry, fretful, fading dreams with this very name on his to merely wonder, for he knew. And he also knew with lips, without knowing the meaning of it? Often enough, whom she had betrayed him. aye. But now he believed he did know. And slow as For Nathan was ankle deep in water now, throwing off flabby bubbles in a swamp, gurgling up from his his clothes, laughing as he rough-and-tumbled her in the damaged memory, another picture formed: a wooded shallows. Their bodies touching, not yet river 450 451 intimately, more like siblings. But Nestor knew that the end of Jason's reticence, if there had actually been any in intimacy would come later; even years later, by which the first place. time it would be too late for him. There are screams and there are screams. Jason Li- And so it was this Nathan who was his olden enemy; desci's silent deadspeak screams that hideous night but an adversary of long-standing, who it now appeared reached out in all directions. They echoed across the had even been Nestor's rival in a mainly unremembered barren boulder plains, reverberated in the passes, flowed childhood! up and over the mountains into Sunside. The dead in all 'His face,' Nestor rasped, as the scene in his mind faded their many places heard him, and knew what was his to a misty shimmer, then vanished entirely. 'You, Jason: torment ... and could not offer a word of comfort, in case show me what he looked like the last time you saw him.' Nestor heard them and came to investigate. Filled with the That was the night of the raid, the other brokenly most awful, impossible agony as he felt his flesh tear and replied, knowing that he was beaten and how useless and his bones come loose at the joint, Jason's screams were painful it would be to speak anything other than the truth. such as to wake the dead, except they dared not wake. For All three of us had been to Starside with my father on his a necromancer was among them. annual trek, and we were, just home. It was the last time I 'His face!' Nestor demanded yet again, and twisted the saw Nathan, and the last time I saw you. Indeed it was the arm one last time, without giving his victim a chance to Jast time I saw anyone from Settlement, or anyone else recover. And when at last Jason's shrieking and sobbing entirely human, ever again. subsided, finally Nestor's order was obeyed. Nestor's patience was running thin. He had asked for A face - Nathan's face, Nestor's olden enemy's face, his one clearly denned thing, and had been fobbed off with Great Enemy's face - came floating up from the pulsing something else entirely. Obviously this Jason was exactly red and black pit of pain which was Jason's mind, and as Gorvi had reported him: surly, difficult, defiant even firmed into being where the necromancer could see it. now. What's more, it could be his screams had been And he knew it! louder than warranted by the amount of pain inflicted. In Blond hair, blue eyes, and pale as can be. Handsome in any case, Nestor had had enough. a sad, shy sort of way. Szgany, and yet not Szgany. And 'It seems to me you're deliberately slowing this down,' suddenly Nestor remembered how sometimes he'd been he snarled, reaching out again and grasping the corpse's ashamed to call Nathan his . . . to call him . . . his ... his ... dangling, almost weightless arm. 'Wherefore, I'll say this his ... only one more time: show me his face!' His mind went blank, numb, rigid as the rock of the Yes! Yes! Jason was terrified, and real terror now, mountains themselves. leaving no further doubt in Nestor's black heart but that at But Jason's mind - apart from his unspeakable agony, last he would get the truth. But just to be absolutely or perhaps because of it - was suddenly crystal clear. certain . . . he tugged on the arm until it almost came loose at the elbow! Which was the absolute 452 453 For looking in on Nestor's deadspeak thoughts, he knew 'What?' Gorvi was astonished. Silent until now, he'd what the necromancer had searched for . . . and also the been patient and seen this pantomime out to its end: mind-warping shock of what he'd discovered. And: Nestor speaking to a corpse, and emptiness for answers. Oh, yes, he sobbed in Nestor's mind. You are correct. Oh, there'd been an atmosphere of sorts, something in the And while you championed him as a boy, later there were air, but nothing of any real substance. And now this: the times when you wouldn't even accept him. Now you so-called 'necromancer' trembling like a girl, apparently know why I couldn't believe you had forgotten him. For afraid of a dead man. 'But you've learned nothing!' indeed that face I showed you was the face of Nathan 'I've learned enough!' Nestor turned on him. 'Perhaps KiJdu. A far better man than you, Nestor, for all that he too much. Old hatreds are awakened; a mischief I had was your twin brother! thought was forgotten returns to plague me; memories Nestor jerked to his feet, recoiled from the truth of it come and go, which I am better off without. . . I think.' like a startled deer. He who had been the torturer was 'But what of the Szgany Lidesci?' Gorvi was outraged. now in turn tormented. His Great Enemy was his brother? 'We had a deal!' His face was suddenly twisted with Not identical, no, but Nathan and Nestor Kiklu? The same suspicion. 'Or perhaps you've reneged, learned what it flesh? From the same womb? They had been Szgany suits you to know and keep to yourself, and you're now together: Nestor, Misha, Nathan and Jason. As children, backing down.' they'd played, laughed and cried together. And indeed in 'Fool!' Nestor spat at him. 'The Szgany Lidesci? those childhood days Nestor had played at being a Settlement? But when I go raiding on Sunside, it's a habit vampire Lord. But that was before he became Lord Nestor of mine to land on the crags over the foothills and look of the Wamphyri. down on that battered fortress of a town. And when I do I And so for the very briefest of moments Nestor was know the place, I remember it, however briefly! But attack reunited with his past, until his vampire saw the danger in it? Attack them, the Szgany Lidesci? No, never! Or at it and worked to erase the error. The metamorphic least, not yet. Not until He returns.' synapses which had welded in that moment of memory 'He?' Gorvi was mystified. came apart again, and Nestor came apart, too, from what 'An old adversary, my Great Enemy. He . . . stole human impulses had started to galvanize him. something which was mine...' Nestor hesitated a moment, His thoughts were deadspeak, and Jason Lidesci had frowned, stroked his aching brow, then continued. 'I think known them. For a moment I saw you again, Nestor, he . . . I think he stole a woman from me, Szgany, a girl of said. The real you. Ah, but you're Wamphyri now, and Settlement, and ran away. If she lives there still, with the the real you no longer exists. Or if it does, then it's only to Lidescis, I'm sure that one day she'll lure him back as the serve the beast in you. moon lures Canker Canison. But only let her die in some Nestor pointed a trembling hand at the corpse, and said ill-conceived raid, where our losses may be greater than to Gorvi: Take that away! Do what you will with it! those of the Szgany, and then he'll have no reason to Destroy it!' return and I could lose him forever. Aye, and my red revenge gone with him!' 454 455 'A woman?' Gorvi was tired of this now. It wasn't me and take them for your own. You were against me going his way at all, and that was too bad. 'Are you from the first.' letting some Szgany slut eat at you? Is that what this is all Gorvi took a sly, flowing pace forward, and his voice about? Some ancient rivalry? But the past is the past, was oily, dangerous as he said: 'What, and did you think Nestor. We live for today, and for tomorrow, and for as they named me the Guile for nothing?' long as we live! The past is dead and gone but the undead Before they could close in on him, Nestor turned and go on forever, or as long as blood allows.' ran. But only for a moment. For suddenly there came the 'Enough!' Nestor growled. 'I have a course to run. The dull, heavy throbbing of propulsors as a black-pulsing dog-Lord has told me that it's a devious thing to read the shadow flowed over the boulder plains. An aerial future, for while events are set, the manner of their warrior, one of Nestor's creatures, performed a slow, occurring is not. Well, I fancy that for me there's a certain low circle. While in the sky directly overhead, a pair of danger in reading the past. If I was meant to know it I flyers formed their wings into air-traps and settled wouldn't have forgotten it in the first place. When the towards a landing. In their saddles, gazing down, Grig and time is right, then I'll know how it was. This lich - this Zahar Lichloathe looked fair set to fight. Jason Lidesci - is a link with things which could change Now Nestor turned to face Gorvi, calling out to him in me. And I prefer to remain as I am. For now, at least. So a low voice: do what you will, but I'm finished here. I'll call my men, 'I know exactly why they call you the Guile: because Zahar and Grig, who are waiting to go hunting on you are sly, devious, and secretive. That's why I, too, Sunside.' came prepared. And do you still want to fight, now that 'We had a deal!' Gorvi stormed again. the odds are on my side? Then go right ahead. But think 'And now it's broken!' Nestor snarled. 'Challenge me if on this: if you lose your life, it won't be the end. For you will, to a duel on Sunside.' we'll meet again, in Suckscar. And you won't be so 'Don't tempt me, pup!' Gorvi shrank back, but Nestor secretive then -1 guarantee it!' read the treachery in his heart. And also his secret mind. Gorvi called off his men and waved them back to The Guile had taken no chances: there were men of his their flyers where they were hidden away to the rear of here even now! the hell-lands Gate. And as he climbed into his own They came from behind the glaring hemisphere of the saddle: Gate, a pair of bulky, leather-clad lieutenants. Against 'We are no longer friends, Lichloathe,' he called out. Gorvi alone, Nestor had a chance. But against the three of Nestor snorted and answered, 'We never were. What? them? He glanced towards his flyer, but Gorvi's lads were Should I have you for a friend when many a trustworthy already putting themselves in the way. They wore scorpion goes wanting? Back to your dungeons, Gorvi, gauntlets, and one of them tossed a third gauntlet to his and scheme some better schemes.' And to his lieutenants: evilly grinning master. Stay aloft. We head for Sunside. In the forest j u s t a Nestor said, 'So. And this was how it would be. I was mile south of Twin Fords there's a Szgany hiding place. to rob this lich of his secrets, so that you could murder 456 457 I've sensed it be/ore. Sometimes they use it, others they the forest loam; nets weighted with silver hissed down don't. WelJ, and if they're in tonight, we'll have them. As out of the treetops, and a fine mist of reeking kneblasch for his warrior: oil fell like a poisonous rain from on high. Then: You, creature . . . go home. Back to your pen. On my An ambusher fired the underbrush! Catching at the return, there'U be a tidbit or two. greasy shrubbery, flames leapt rapidly from branch to And as the loathsome construct turned and fired its branch. A ring of fire was formed which trapped the propulsors for Wrathstack, so the necromancer mounted three, turned night into day and robbed them of their up and in a little while was airborne with his lieutenants. night-vision advantage. Then, wheeling their beasts in a star-spattered sky, all three Dragging Grig behind them, and slicing through a set course for the great pass and the sweet red fruits of tangle of nets with their gauntlets, Nestor and Zahar fled. Sunside . . . And Grig was lucky, too, because another Lord might well have left him to his fate. But Nestor had only the two ... Except the night was anything but fruitful. lieutenants and could scarcely afford to lose one of them. Those vibrations which Nestor had sensed during It was as simple as that and nothing of loyalty in it; a previous hunting trips turned out to be the lure for an as vampire, especially a Lord of the Wamphyri, worries yet untried Szgany ambush routine, and he and his about his own life first. Indeed that's aJI he worries about. lieutenants almost became its first victims. Landing at a All three were scorched, sickened by the kneblasch, suitable site in the forest and heading for the source of the humiliated by the outcome: to have been routed by a vibrations - the fading smell of cooking, the scent of handful of men! For Nestor it was maddening, infuriating Szgany flesh and blood, the body-heat of humanity, and - and worse to come when they got back to their flyers. their dreams, and the night whispers of those who were Grig's mount was finished. Flopping like a crippled awake and stood guard — the first Nestor was aware of moth on its underbelly, where more than half of its the trap was when Grig took a bolt in his shoulder too thrusting limbs had been sliced through with machetes, close to his heart, which knocked him off his feet and the creature made sounds like a mewling infant. Blinded robbed him of most of his strength, and Zahar yelled a by burning far - with its manta wings still smouldering warning that would awaken the entire forest. Following where the same substance had made great black holes in which the Szgany were everywhere. them - it lolled there, cried its bewilderment, nodded its Obviously this was one Traveller group which had scorched and blackened head. learned from the example of Lardis Lidesci and his Nestor's flyer had also suffered; stabbed several times people. in the neck before it had rolled on its attacker to crush Nestor and Zahar were fortunate indeed. Kneblasch- him, it leaked its fluids and was barely airworthy. If he soaked, silver-tipped crossbow bolts came within an inch; could fly it back to Suckscar in one piece, the beast a great tree, sawn through at its base and held in place would heal in time. But it was a big if. Only Zahar's with guy-ropes, came crashing down, its lopped-off branches sharpened to stakes that hammered into 458 459 creature was one hundred percent fit, for it had learned ... The Lady Wratha! from the trials of the others and had rolled on its two She was here! She had heard his thoughts! She was attackers before they could do any real damage. Their smiling at him, in his mind! Her superior mentalism! He crushed bodies were a mess beneath the creature, where had let himself be seen for what he was: a lovesick child! gore and guts had erupted from gaping mouths and other (The warm, silky feel of her hard nipples and soft breasts, orifices. which whenever he thought of her set the palm of his Less than an hour ago, Nestor and his men had landed hand tingling just as it had tingled that night on the roof on a gently sloping, wooded hillside which would of Wrathspire.) Except he could see now how easy it normally make a good, easy launching site. Now, angry, would have been for her to put it there, to insert such a confused and in haste, they made a less-than-graceful vision into his inexperienced mind. exit. Zahar had taken Grig up behind him on his good But if she had wanted him to think of her that way -- Then flyer, while Nestor rode alone on his weakened beast. But perhaps she had wanted him! 'Inexperienced, aye,' she their sliding, slithering, bone-jolting launch was much said, stepping out from behind a teetering boulder. That less than satisfactory, and they left a wide swath of you are. While I have all the experience of a hundred flattened bushes in their wake. All of which served to fuel years. So don't feel too badly about it, my handsome Lord Nestor's fury. Nestor. For I tell you this: if I had tormented the others in No sooner were they safely aloft than he ordered Zahar the same way, why, they would have fallen into my arms home and followed on awhile before landing on a south- in a day and a night!" facing plateau in the barrier mountains. There he rubbed 'Why are you here?' He felt stupid and naive even spittle into his flyer's wounds to hasten the healing, then asking it. She was here to taunt him, of course. Because let the beast rest and settle down while he stood on the she knew now that she had him. Or . . . was she here to rim, gazed down on Sunside, and considered the events claim her prize? of the last few hours. And as his anger cooled he 'Neither one.' She shook her head. 'The prize is yours, recognized the truth of it: that they had been disastrous Nestor. To claim at sunup in Wrathspire, when I go to my events, all of them. bed. Or in Suckscar, if that's how you will have it. Nor do First, the loss of a useful flyer, not easy to replace. I wish to "have" you, but that we shall have each other. Second, his man Grig was badly wounded and wouldn't Perhaps you would have come to me before, or me to you, be good for anything for several sundowns. And third, except you brought a mistress out of Sunside. And are Gorvi the Guile was now his sworn enemy, and without you satisfied? Has she been enough? Ah, I doubt it! For a doubt would try to make trouble for him. (Well, nothing little while, maybe, but you are Wamphyri now, Nestor. much changed there, at least!) But as for the rest: a great And yet you are a strange one, too, for there are things in deal lost for no gain whatsoever. Nestor's frustration was your past which cling even now, and you still remember vast, and not only as a result of tonight's shambles. For in the true art.' the back of his mind - but ready to surface at a moment's 'The true art?' He even felt like a child in front of her. notice - there was his frustration in respect of . . . 460 461 'Of love. For the Wamphyri feel only lust.' then what of mine? I have known frustration, too, and 'Including yourself?' my manse has suffered as a result. All needs putting to 'You can only have what I have to give.' She moved rights, and I must see to it. I have heard the odd closer. whisper circulating about the quality of my water, and And like a fool he stepped back a pace and said, 'But other ... conditions in my manse, which have caused you offered it before, and then refused.' certain Lords to chuckle behind my back. And I, too, Think back,' she said. 'I made no offer. Since when is a shall whisper and chuckle, when I call for him whose kiss a licence to rape? You would have taken me by duty it was to see to my siphoneers. And as for those force, which no man ever did. For all that I wanted you, who keep watch over my war-beasts, waxing in their that was something I couldn't allow.' vats ... they have waxed enough. Time that they waned a He frowned. 'But if you don't know this "true art", as little. Moreover, there have been affairs in Wrathspire you call it - if you can't experience Szgany love as they which I never sanctioned. know it now, and as I seem to remember it - what 'Oh, a good many of my manse's "affairs" require difference will our being together make? You have asked: resolution, but not before my own needs are served. For am I, Nestor, satisfied? But I ask: can I be satisfied? Is it such as they are, they allow me no peace of mind ...' any longer possible? For as you've pointed out, I am Her eyes gazed into his a moment, searchingly, before Wamphyri.' she repeated: 'My needs, aye. And ... yours?' 'Why don't we find out?' And she took another flowing He closed with her, reached for her ... and she placed pace towards him. But this time he stood still. a hand upon his chest, holding him back. But seeing the She was clad in leather splashed with blood, but wore angry thought which instantly flashed across his mind: no gauntlet. Suddenly he thought again about her being 'Ah, no, my handsome young Lord,' she smiled. 'I've here, and wondered: Is she aJone? While out loud, again learned my lesson and will not torment you again. For he asked her: the last time cost me too much time. But don't be 'Just why did you come here?' impatient and try to remember: I am the Lady Wratha. 'I am alone, yes,' she answered. 'We had a good raid for This is neither the time nor the place for love . . . or for once and recruited seven thralls, and as many again will lust.' trek for Starside before the sun is risen. But flying back 'When, then? And where?' His throat was so tight it to Wrathspire I saw you here and sensed your thoughts; very nearly choked him, so that his words came out a easy, because I am used to them. And because I felt your husky gasp. pain, anger and frustration, I knew it was time. So I 'We are neighbours,' she answered, her own voice ordered my people on and came to you. falling to a whisper, a promise. 'Only climb to Wrath- 'For while I've waited, I have also watched you, Nestor. spire in the hour before sunup. Neither man nor creature In some ways you found the metamorphosis from man to shall bar the way.' Wamphyri easy, while in others it was difficult. But if 'I. . . want you,' he said, and yet again felt foolish. Then you think your trials have been hard, come to me,' she told him. And as she walked 462 463 'Well, say on.' away, pausing only once to look back and smile, Nestor found himself trembling like a young boy. 'She murdered Karl the Crag ...' Again a pause. Following which, from time to time until the next '... Must I drag it out of you?' sunup, he would tremble a great deal and feel that 'Now listen to me,' Canker growled low in his throat. accustomed tingle in his palm. But he would also know 'In Wrathspire at sunup, the sun shines through several that Wratha had not put it there. She had no need to. windows. Or it would if they weren't kept heavily Not any longer ... draped.' 'So?' When Canker Canison returned out of Sunside, Nestor 'It is the pattern I don't like, for it was the same upon a went down into Mangemanse to ask him about Wratha. time in Cragspire in Turgosheim, where Karl the Crag Previously, he'd heard a good many things about her but was master. And he would be to this day, if not for now wanted it in more detail or from a source which Wratha.' was trustworthy. The dog-Lord told him her story, what 'How did she murder him?' Nestor tried to be patient. he knew of it, but paused before finishing and said: 'It's hearsay, of course.' 'Ah! You would go to her! A liaison! I have seen 'Will you tell me, or won't you?' The necromancer's through your inquiry! What, but you are fortunate! You patience was all used up. have so much to learn, and Wratha has so very much to 'She got him drunk!' Canker barked. 'She exhausted teach you. Now tell me: when will you see her?' him with her sex, bound him to a bed and opened the 'Between you and me?' curtains! She let the sun shine directly in upon him. She 'Of course!' the other barked. 'Do you think I'd betray decked the walls with bronze shields burnished to mirror you? I am excited, that's all, and in spirit I'll be with brightness, all concentrating the sunlight on Karl in his you. Ah, but if only I could be with you in bed! That stupor, while she stood safe in the shadows. It didn't take Wratha ...' too long. Karl fried and his leech deserted him. But in the Nestor rubbed his chin to keep from grinning, for the brilliant light it, too, was finished. And as Karl's parasite delight which Canker showed for him was both genuine blackened and smoked, so Wratha closed the curtains. and infectious. 'In the hour before sunup,' he said. 'Then The leech issued its egg - one last chance for continuity, I climb to Wrathspire.' a final throw at reproduction -and Wratha made it Canker's long bottom jaw fell open, and his mood welcome! She had been a vampire thrall, Karl's changed in a moment. 'The hour before sunup?' mistress, and now was Mistress of Crag-spire, soon to Nestor nodded. 'Something amiss?' be Wrathspire. So she ascended ...' 'No, no . . . " The other shook his head, looked worried, 'A pattern, you said.' Nestor was thoughtful. 'But if then changed his mind and nodded. 'Yes, yes! Something she planned any such fate for me, what would she gain could be very much amiss. It's all in the nature of from it? That time in Turgosheim it was her ascension. Wratha's ascension ...' But here she is risen! Also, forewarned is forearmed. She'll not get me drunk so very easily, believe it! And 464 465 I'll make sure to stay well away from any south-facing windows.' Canker was astonished. 'Still you'll go? Despite what VI I've told you?' Nestor and Wratha: Their Joining Nestor looked at him, looked away, shrugged. And finally: 'I've been Wamphyri for something less than two years now,' he said. 'But before that I was Szgany, and of the Lidesci clan at that. They are a hot-blooded people, as you know, and my parasite has turned up the heat tenfold. Will I go, you ask ...? Now tell me, my friend, When Nestor got back up into Suckscar, he found Zahar would you?' waiting for him with a surprise. Wratha had sent him Nostrils gaping suspiciously, Canker sniffed the air. down a present of three Szgany males from the night's His great furry wolf's ears, with their dangling lobes raid. There was a youth, a grown man and a greypate. For fretted into a sickle-moon sigil, twitched this way and all his pride, Nestor was hardly the one to refuse them; not now that the get out of Sunside had grown so small. He that as if intent on distant sounds or thoughts. Finally he did note, however, that they were all males, which Wratha fell to all fours, threw back his head and howled. And his must surely prefer to keep. But on the other hand and in ribbed throat throbbed as its eerie ululations echoed the current circumstances, he could see why she wouldn't through all of Mangemanse. But as they died away... want to send him women fresh out of Sunside ... A trickle of saliva dribbled from the corner of the dog- Lord's panting, soft leathery mouth. And looking up at As for sending him any token of her esteem at all - Nestor, he whined and said, 'Lord Lichloathe, my lad - especially one of precious flesh and blood - that was completely unheard of, and Zahar was at a loss to but how could I possibly resist it?' understand it. 'Is the Lady in your debt, Lord?' he finally found courage to inquire. And indeed, in respect of Wratha's spying on Nestor - her interference with his dreams, and what all - perhaps she could be said to be in his debt at that. Whether or no, he looked Zahar square in the eye and answered: 'She could be, eventually .. .' And on afterthought, 'Let's just say that she and I have business together.' But the truth of it was that he fancied he might end up in her debt - if he had gauged the situation correctly. Canker had told him how much she could teach him; again Nestor must put his pride aside and allow himself 467 to be taught; if he could match her even part of the way ... tion well into Starside's long night. Before he knew it there might yet be revelations on both sides. His vampire there were only a few hours left to sunup. Instructing women in Suckscar had already shown him more than Zahar to wake him when the peaks of the barrier most men learn in a lifetime. mountains turned from ash-grey to a leaden glimmer, he But then of course there was the dog-Lord's warning went to his bed. But three hours before the dawn, when too, which, if he was right, might well prove lethally Zahar was still about his duties, he came awake of his dangerous. And in that case this 'gift' was simply a clever own accord. garnish hiding the poison on the meat underneath. But For once he had not dreamed, but he had tossed and being offered food and actually eating it are two different turned and sweated a cold, vampire sweat. It was his things entirely. Nestor must simply wait and see how leech; his parasite knew his emotions and sensed the hungry he would get. danger in them; it caused him to see all sorts of perils in And meanwhile: the course which he'd set for himself. But as the time drew Using his virulent bite, taking sustenance from his new closer Nestor saw only one thing, and he drove all niggling thralls and at the same time imparting to them, Nestor doubts from his mind. For what he had said to Canker was undeniably true: Wratha was risen; she occupied the indoctrinated both of the younger men into his household; grandest manse in the entire stack; she had little or they were his now. He sent the youngest to attend Grig; nothing to gain from seducing him only to murder him. he was to care for the wounded lieutenant and, when he Wherefore it must be that she fancied him. As simple as was fully recovered, become his apprentice. There would that. And for his own part, Nestor could scarcely imagine be plenty of work for the more mature man: tunnels to be anything more delicious than to go with her to her bed. dug, quarters enlarged and pens to be cleaned; he would Whether or not the excitement would last remained to be go onto Suckscar's work roster. seen, but as in each and every 'love' affair, the excitement As for the greypate: Nestor didn't even give him a itself was enough for now. second thought. He was for Suckscar's provisioning. Meat Rising up, he bathed thoroughly and breakfasted. It was for the communal dining tables of the common thralls, hardly the hour for it, but he felt he should fuel himself on and crushed bone for flyer- and warrior-meal, both were a little something at least. Sunside honey, coarse bread, hard to come by and getting harder. Sooner or later there fresh milk from his udderlings (some of which were once must be a reckoning, a reassessment. There had to be women, others which were still shads, but all of them easier ways to collect the fruits of Sunside than by grown huge through various metamor-phic processes), raiding; perhaps he would speak to Wratha about it . . . and just a morsel of meat, sweet rabbit from Suckscar's later. For if she could afford to send him thralls out of her farm. He still had no real appreciation of manflesh, except own get, it must be that she was doing better than him. So in the liquid which is the life: blood. it was possible he'd have 'business' with her after all. . . Then he threw off his robe and got dressed in his The administration of Suckscar claimed Nestor's atten- 468 469 finest, softest leathers, following which there was little She looked a little sad, hung her head, and nodded. 'So more than an hour left to wait. Prowling his rooms to and be it.' And drawing the curtains behind her, she descended fro, he knew what an ardent young lover he must seem to her spiral stairwell. But strangely, Nestor felt a lump enter anyone who saw him like this. But no one did see him, his throat, causing him to call out: 'How fares the little except - one?' - Glina! The footsteps paused and her answer came back: 'He is She had come up through her spiral staircase and stood as well as can be. Would you see him? Should I bring him in a curtained archway watching him. And Nestor had to you?' been so lost in his own thoughts that he had not noticed 'Not now,' he said again. 'Perhaps later ...' But in truth her. But now: he had no interest in the child and occasionally wondered: 'Yes, what is it?' And he was surprised to recognize an What is this human baby doing in Suckscar anyway? It edge in his voice, as if he were hiding something -as if he, were better if he'd taken Canker Canison's advice that Lord Nestor Lichloathe, should require to hide anything time, killed her out of hand and let the dog-Lord breakfast from a common vampire thrall such as Glina! on the infant. Except Glina had had her uses then. And 'I . . . I thought I heard you call me,' she answered. And perhaps she would again. She was as good and better in he knew it was a lie. his bed than any of the others, anyway. .. 'You came to spy on me.' His voice was quiet, which By the time he had thought these thoughts, she was signalled danger. gone. 'On you, Nestor?' She'd been familiar with him right But when he went up by a narrow, cobwebbed, disused from the start; when they were together in his bed, he route into Wrathspire, she was watching him from a even demanded it. 'Why would I spy? All there is to know shadowy niche. And she knew there was only one place he about you, I already know. Except why you went to your could be going. bed so early, and why you're up already and dressed. And so Glina continued to know all there was to know Perhaps you have an appointment?' about Nestor Lichloathe ... 'Do you question me?' He frowned. 'Do you dare?' His voice was still low, but harsher now. 'Who have you been Wratha had promised the way would be easy, but Nestor speaking to, Zahar?' couldn't believe how easy. Neither common thrall, 'I have not seen Zahar for a day and a half. Is something lieutenant nor warrior guarded the route from Suckscar to wrong?' Her voice was full of a genuine concern. Wrathspire. From the pens in the rear of Wratha's landing Nestor's frown lifted, but slowly. Finally he sighed and bays, he heard the subdued mewling of flyers; in the level shook his head. 'Nothing is wrong. Go now.' above he was aware of a distant clamour and the frantic 'You do not... want me?' clanking of chains, as if some creature knew of an intruder 'Not now,' (and probably not ever again; for already she and hurled itself about in a pointless frenzy; in the next palled, without that he'd even been to Wratha as yet). level a shadow was 'Later, possibly.' (But only possibly.) 470 471 He followed her up a narrow staircase, a steeply rising glimpsed just the once, which silently, discreetly tunnel hewn through solid rock. The light was dim but it retreated and vanished. made no difference; their vampire eyes saw clear as day. It was that easy. And since she led the way and her dress was short, he saw True, Nestor had kept well away from the main her nakedness beneath. At the top of the stairs was a passageways and staircases, so that his route had been landing and a niche, where chains hung empty from the circuitous; also a fact that as dawn approached, Wrath- rear wall. Normally a guardian warrior would be stationed spire's vampire inhabitants would be taking to their beds, here. all except for a skeleton staff and watch. But apart from the aforementioned and entirely acceptable exceptions - They entered a narrow tunnel, and where the way was narrowest she flattened herself to the wall. 'You may the mewling flyers, the distant protests of some fearsome pass,' she told him, smiling in her eerie fashion. 'At the guardian, and the fleeting presence of a very discreet end of the passage you'll enter a junction with several shadow - he'd neither seen nor heard anything to inspire tunnels leading off, one of which is marked with my fear or flight. Lady's sigil.' Then, as he approached the penultimate level, he was He made to pass her front-to-front, and her hand at met by a beautiful vampire girl who bowed and told him once fell to his member to stroke and clutch it. Fixed she was Wratha's handmaiden, here to escort him to her there, astonished, he watched as she used her free hand to mistress. Her dress was thin and deep-cut between her part her dress so that her breasts lolled free. Then: pointed breasts, which showed in all their ripeness when 'What? And is this your idea of discretion?' he husked, she bowed. She was very shapely: as comely and brushing by her at last. 'What would your mistress say to desirable - perhaps even more desirable -as any of his this, I wonder?' But for all that his words were a threat, own women, Nestor thought. And as he followed her, she still he was tempted. His blood was up and his member glanced back at him coyly and said: jumped and jerked in her hand even through his leathers. 'My Lady trusts you met with no obstacle on your way His eyes were drawn to her breasts, too, which looked up?' delicious, so that it was hard not to reach for them. 'None.' He shook his head. 'I came by an indirect route. I am discreet.' But before he could move to do so, the girl released 'I know my Lady would appreciate that,' she answered. him, laughed and repeated: 'My only indiscretion would 'But had you chosen even the most direct route, it would have been to disobey her! For if you had come to her with make little or no difference. Wratha makes you welcome anything less than passion, it would not be enough. Many here. As for discretion, my Lady gives orders which are men would be unmanned by the prospect of entering obeyed. When she instructs her thralls, "in this or that another's manse, unarmed and entirely vulnerable. After hour you will all be in your beds ... nothing will stir . . . I all, the way is dark and dire, and you could have met with am not to be disturbed", then the only indiscretion would monsters! Your ... ardour might have suffered as a result. be to disobey her.' In which case I would ask you to 'I see,' Nestor answered. 473 472 wondered at his own temerity, that he'd come here of turn back here and now, go away and wait for a better his own free will where wiser men than he might fear time. Ah, but it is obvious that the Lord Nestor is no such to tread. faintheart! Indeed you are . . . what, ready? And so is my But as he looked at himself, it seemed he saw Lady Wratha.' something else. And for all that he knew he was host to Following which she put her breasts away, turned her a vampire leech, still he did not like the corrugations back on him and ran back the way they'd come, leaving which made his skin reptilian, and the cobra's hood Nestor to wonder: What was all of that about? More which suddenly shielded his brow and eyes. These garnish for the poisoned meat? things were illusion, he knew, and engendered of his In any case, too late now but to carry on and taste it. . . own mind; but still he preferred the looks of the man to that of the thing which governed him. As Nestor entered Wratha's private chambers, it was at Turning abruptly from the mirror, he took in at a once apparent that these were a Lady's quarters. He knew glance this anteroom which he'd entered through a they were, of course, but even if he'd been ignorant of narrow archway hung with bat-fur drapes. It would that fact... appear to be Wratha's dressing-room, where she tended ... There were mirrors here, for a start: plates of gold her looks in private. There was a stone washbasin, hammered flat and polished to a high sheen, which gave carved ironwood shelves for powders, perfumes and warmth and life to his reflected features even though they oils, and several niches cut back into the walls where were cold and lacked the spark that sets common various garments were kept on bone hangers. The Lady humanity apart. He would have known from the mirrors Wratha did not go wanting for clothes. alone that this was a Lady's manse, for only an extremely Her undergarments were of best quality Szgany lace; vain Lord would adorn his walls with such as these; and outer clothing was generally of soft leathers and skins; even then, given the greatest possible vanity, it could dresses were bat-fur, or the soft white hide of young never compensate for the awareness of lack of soul which albino bears. Wratha's boots were of good shad-leather was the true message that Wratha's mirrors imparted. No, hand-tooled by Szgany craftsmen; the soles of her slippers mirrors were an abomination, which since time were of flexible white cartilage fitted with leather immemorial had been used by the Szgany of Sunside to thongs; a number of curved, intricately carved scarps of reflect lethal sunlight into the faces of their Starside bone (the shields which she wore upon her brow to enemies. But apparently Wratha had risen above such disguise the rare but disturbing disorder of the eyes things; she was pleased to see herself as she really was . . . which transformed her whenever she gave sway to however she was. ungovernable rages or furious emotions) had been Well, and now Nestor, too, could look upon his own fashioned to be ornamental rather than functional. face again, examining it in full for the first time since There were earrings, bangles and anklets, pendants and leaving ... since he became Wamphyri. And what he saw brooches, mostly in common gold ... was a tall and handsome Lord, albeit a Lord who Nestor saw all of these things and the thought 474 475 occurred: But with so many items here, what can she be Another pace, and his shirt was left behind. She lifted up wearing now? her milk-white arms to him, and Nestor's breathing went Nothing! came back the answer, and her low, hoarse and ragged as the upper halves of her breasts unmistakable laughter tinkling in his mind. Why don't you bobbed on the water and dripped foam. come through? Do you find my clothes so fascinating, 'Can you do this?' she said. Her eyes, scarlet just a then? If so, then what of my nakedness? moment ago, were dark now and Gypsyish. 'Metamor- Apart from the tunnel or passageway by which he'd phism,' she told him. 'It is draining but sometimes worth entered, there was only one exit. And holding his breath it; worth it here and now, for I know there's still a lot of (though why he could never have said, for nothing in the Szgany in you. You want innocence, Nestor, and as you world could make him back off now), Nestor passed will see, Wratha can be innocent if needs be.' through more ropes of bat-fur into Wratha's bedchamber. He took a third pace towards her, and now he was as And there he found her, clad as foretold in nothing - but naked as the Lady herself. foam and water! 'But you don't know that,' she taunted, again reading She was in her bath! his mind. 'Perhaps beneath the foam, I'm wearing some 'But as you see, there's plenty of room for two.' Wratha gauzy shift.' She laughed again, stared pointedly at his smiled, and Nestor had never seen anything more throbbing, jerking manliness, and licked her scarlet lips. seductive. And her eyes were full of him. His fate was now entirely in her hands. Right now, Then I'll go through it,' he husked, as if he were without delay, she could call her lieutenants or guardian driving the words through the crusts of his dry throat. warriors, and that would be the end of the necromancer 'You are dry,' she said. 'But see, there's a measure of Lord Nestor Lichloathe of the Wamphyri. He knew it and good Szgany wine here.' Reaching out, she touched a she knew it. But they both knew that this was not her stone jug and golden goblets where they stood on the tiled purpose and could never be so long as the One Big rim. Question remained unanswered. For there was something He was at the edge and saw a step just under the else they must know, which knowledge would be carnal: surface where Wratha's wavelets disturbed the water. the culmination of that consuming attraction which had Swallowing hard, he answered, 'I know what I want to been growing between them since the morning Wran the drink, and from which dark well.' Rage gave Nestor Vasagi's egg and brought him out of And now the Lady's voice was as husky and drunk Sunside. with lust as Nestor's own, as she told him: 'I know your He took a pace towards her huge bath — at least six come will be as sweet as your fine firm body. And so and a half feet square where it had been cut into the floor, we'll drink together.' and finished at the rim with glazed Szgany tiles -and As he stepped down into the bath and reached for her, behind him as he paused, his leather jacket fell to the the water and foam swirled round his rubbery knees. But coarse-woven carpet. Wratha was a mass of milky Wratha held back, breathless as she instructed him: 'Bathe bubbles; opaque, they hid her loveliness from view. me, and I shall bathe you. To touch 477 476 frenzied fever dreams, or the dungeons of torturers. So is allowed, but nothing more for now. We'll make all parts that at last Nestor was satisfied. clean as never before, before we dirty them.' And perhaps surprisingly - to her surprise, at least -so 'I want you now.' His voice was a growl. was the Lady Wratha . . . 'Don't spoil it, Nestor.' She shook her head. 'In times to come we'll fuck in this bath a hundred times, I know it. Later they talked. But as for now ... my bed is waiting. What, and would you 'Was I innocent enough for you?' Wratha lay spread- drink froth and bubbles along with my juices? But when eagled beneath the bearskin blanket, one lovely leg we've bathed you'll be so much harder, and I shall be so protruding, her jet black hair damp and gleaming, releasing much softer ...' coils of scented vapour from her heat. They bathed each other, and Nestor thought it was 'Look at you.' Nestor smiled a wry, drained smile. probably the cleanest he'd ever been. She lingered over 'With that wanton sprawl of yours, and those knowing him, and he over her, and nothing to interfere with or stay eyes? Even when you made your eyes dark, they were their hands except the soft water and honeyed soap. So scarcely innocent! Have you ever been innocent, Wratha? that when at last she kissed his swaying, burning tip, but I know your story; I heard it from the dog-Lord, who is briefly, stood up and wrapped herself in a towel, he knew my friend.' that she'd been right. His rod had never been so hard, and 'Well,' she shrugged, 'and Canker's right. No, I've she had never been so open to any man. known nothing of innocence, not ever. I would have liked Towelling themselves dry and barely able to keep from to, but life as a Szgany girl in Turgosheim's Sunside one continuing their fondling, they moved to her bed. High hundred years ago ... was not the best environment in and wide - built of great heavy slates, with the top layer which to learn it. We were slaves to the Wamphyri from hollowed in the middle to take a fur-stuffed mattress - it birth. But at least I kept myself to myself until they took was massive. Wooden steps led up on one side, which me. Even so, it wasn't so much that I was innocent but Wratha climbed to turn back a soft bearskin blanket. And clever. And I've stayed clever.' dropping her towel, she turned and showed herself to him She propped herself on one elbow. 'Very well, so I was where he followed. After that. .. not the sweet and shuddering, untried Gypsy flesh you so . . . It was delirium! admire or lust after. But I tried to be.' Human beings can never experience the full, unfettered 'If I had not known,' he told her truthfully, 'then you violence and animal sex of the Wamphyri and live. But would have fooled me. When you tightened on me, you Wratha and Nestor were no longer human. They were could have been a young girl, certainly. And when you Wamphyri! cried out, it was as if you were a virgin. But you exude ... And so for five long hours they did all and more to womanhood! You are hot and exciting. There is no each other than ever man and woman had done before, disguising that.' except maybe for one other affair long, long ago (and in this very bed at that), or in the depths of drugged and 'So I was not everything you wanted?' 'You are the most beautiful creature in Wrathstack,' 478 479 'I took what was rightfully mine!' she cried, drawing he told her. 'If you are not everything I could want, then back from him a little. 'I was their leader, and a good one. where can I find it? No, you are everything. You were But Wran and Spiro, they are madmen who have no everything. I won't be able to go to my bed again in reason and so won't listen to it. As for Gorvi, his instincts Suckscar without wishing I were here with you.' He are so inbred he cannot think except in ever-tightening touched her breasts, and her nipples instantly hardened spirals: to plot and scheme and work to his own devious between his fingers. It wasn't metamorphism, simply her designs. Vasagi the Suck, however ugly, was the only natural reaction to his caress. And when her slender hand clever one among them; I had hoped he would kill Wran, fell on him, Nestor too reacted, despite that he'd thought so that I could draw the others back into one body, but it he was drained. was not to be. Vasagi is no more, and we are still Til tell you something,' she said, looking deep into his divided. As for Canker Canison, what can I say? His eyes. 'And this is the whole truth: I never gave myself to father went baying mad, and it seems to me that the dog- any man before. Not even Karl the Crag, who was my Lord follows a like pattern! That damned bone thing, that "master". Oh, he took me, aye, and believed that I instrument he plays, whose so-called "music" blares out enjoyed it. Indeed, he "knew" that I loved him! But in even here: to lure his silver mistress down from the fact I loathed him. Following which I suffered the sleep, moon, indeed! Bah.' It was a mismatched batch I chose but worse than any gone before. I was buried alive, to bring with me out of Turgosheim ...' Nestor, and no one was ever more frightened! I still start She paused, and in a moment: 'But there, it seems I've awake, cold and clammy in my bed, as if it were the rock strayed a little from my theme, which was innocence.' tomb in which I became a vampire .. . 'And was I innocent?' he asked her. 'Since when .. . I've had men be sure, but I never gave 'You want me to say no,' she told him. 'But in fact you myself to one. Not as I've given myself to you. Oh, I tried were. Not nai've, but innocent, aye. Because you have a Lord or two in Turgosheim - the bravest of a sorry not had a woman before me. A Szgany girl or girls, bunch - but only to discover that the sap had gone out of maybe, and a handful of vampire thralls, but never a them. Maybe they'll get it back one day, but not until they woman. And anyway, there is no other woman like pursue me out of that pesthole gorge and return to the true Wratha.' life. Not until they learn how to live again, and lust, and No, not like you, he kept the thought to himself. But drown themselves in blood! That's what I wanted and it's one I wanted, who was ... what, stolen from me? One day why I fled: to return to the old ways and turn this western I'JI teach her all I've learned, even what I've learned from Sunside into a vast and sprawling charnel-house, and you. It may kill her — with pleasure, or pain, whatever - make my men and warriors strong! I would have had it, but at least I shall know her at last. And she'll know what too, if this gang of grumbling renegades who inhabit my she's missed, that she could have been my Lady in stack hadn't turned on me.' Suckscar. And a fleeting picture of a girl, standing in a 'You stole their thralls,' Nestor pointed out. 'Even from river's shallows, sun-splashed and the first raid on Twin Fords, you were a thief.' 481 480 can't handle the nets alone, and so all lose out. But the dripping water, crossed briefly over his mind. But all two of us - working together, as a team - we can grow hidden from Wratha. strong. For there are plenty of fish in Sunside, Nestor. 'Are we unique, then?' he asked out loud. 'Vampires, It's just that as individuals we're inefficient. And so I and yet true lovers? Are we forever for each other, or is say it again: we can do it together, you and I.' this a fleeting thing?' The three of us.' Nestor held her closer, let his hand 'It will last as long as it lasts,' she answered. 'I ask only reach down the curve of her back to the valley of her one thing.' buttocks. That I'm faithful? But how? I'm Wamphyri!' Three?' 'No, not that.' She shook her head. 'But that if we part, or when, then that we go our separate ways with honour. 'Canker is strong, and cleverer than you think. Forget Neither bitterness nor treachery of any sort. When it's his music and his moon madness; that is only one thing, and anyway he's not so mad. I've learned a lot done it's done, and that is all.' from him.' 'Agreed. And until then?' 'That we're lovers, and allies.' 'It's true he makes good monsters.' She took his 'We are lovers,' he answered. 'But allies? Against stirring male cluster in the palm of her hand, gently what? To what end?' revolving and jiggling his parts. 'Will he be amenable?' The hunting goes badly.' 'He loves me like a son,' Nestor answered, lowering 'For you, too? And yet you sent me three good ones. his head to draw a stiffened nipple into his mouth. Well, two good ones, and a third for my manse's Then, withdrawing, he frowned and said: 'But on the provisioning.' other hand, Gorvi hates me.' 'It was my token, my promise. I gave to you, so that 'He hates all of us,' she answered. And sighed. 'Ah, you would know you could give to me - safely, without what it is to be young!' fear - and you have. And I appreciate it. I didn't know 'Eh?' how much I needed a strong man by my side, and in my 'Your rod is pulsing again. I can't believe it!' bed. But indeed the get out of Sunside grows smaller. If He chuckled darkly. 'Oh, it's my body, Wratha - but we can work together as lovers, then surely we can work it's my vampire's lust! And the Wamphyri are together against the Szgany?' inexhaustible.' 'I had intended speaking to you on that very theme,' he And reaching down between her coarse dark curls, answered in her conch-like ear, for Wratha had crept back he found her bud and triggered it. Her leg went over into his arms. 'Something must be done, for the stack him at once, drawing him closer. But as if to deny her suffers. We all suffer alike.' resurgent need, she said, urgently: 'It's important we 'But the others are incapable of helping themselves,' talk - and now. There'll be time enough to satisfy our she nodded. 'Because they're stupid and selfish, and can't other needs later.' And in a voice on the edge of see past their own noses. They're like Szgany fishermen trembling: 'As if we hadn't already done so!' who quarrel over a stretch of river: one man 'One mouth says one thing,' Nestor husked, 'and the 483 482 other denies it. The mouth in your face is wise and between us renegades but two great armies: Vormulac's speaks prudently, but the one between your thighs is and Wratha's. Oh, Gorvi, Wran and Spiro will know greedy and mindless of all but pleasure. When they which side to take! For they'd get short shrift from the speak together, as now, all is confusion.' invaders.' 'A Szgany saying?' Nestor was thoughtful. 'Canker has been a mine of 'Probably.' information. He's told me a lot about Turgosheim. There Then here's another: a stiff prick has no conscience.' are so many Lords ... and what if they all come together?' 'And a soft wet cunt is deep as a swamp, and just as 'I'm sure they will.' hard to escape from.' 'Then how can we win?' Another moment and he would be in her again; she 'Because this is home territory. And by then we'll be pulled apart from him and shook her head: 'We must an army in our own right. Far easier to defend than talk!' attack, Nestor. And remember: they'll be exhausted from He sighed and rolled over onto his back. 'Very well, their long flight. But we'll be fresh. And our familiar bats say on. But work my meat a moment. The throbbing is will bring us warning well in advance. Indeed, even now delicious.' and ever since I first settled here, I have had my 'You are insatiable!' she laughed, grasping him. creatures stationed in the eastern ranges of the barrier 'Not me - my vampire!' was his excuse. mountains, watching and waiting.' 'Now listen,' she said. 'If we three work together, then 'But if we in Wrathstack are positively divided, so Wran, Spiro and Gorvi will doubtless join forces too. that we can't even work together in peace, how will we And that is all to the good.' make out in war?' 'How so?' Wratha shrugged. 'We're not so divided. We three - 'Because they will then put aside their differences and you, me and Canker - have the top levels of the stack, ready themselves for what they'll see as inevitable battle. while Gorvi and the brothers Killglance have the bottom. I want them to be prepared, for I have seen what they If Wran denies me gas from his beasts, I deny him water have not: that eventually Vormulac and the others will from my siphoneers. Insofar as the proper maintenance come bursting out of Turgosheim to wage war ... against of the stack is concerned, that's how it works; we need me, Wrathstack, the last aerie! For in Tur-gosheim's each other this much at least.' Sunside the blood grows thin, while here it's still hot and 'Have you talked to the others about this invasion red. Vormulac knows that's why I came here in the first you're sure will come?' place: to better myself, to grow strong. He doesn't know 'In the early days, often. And they listened to me, if I'm successful, but he daren't take the chance that I'm then. Since when they've grown lax. We all have, for not. And so he must come, eventually, unless he's even various reasons. There were easy pickings at first, until weaker than my estimate! He must, for he'll fear that I'm this Lardis found his feet and the other tribes started to building an army to return and attack him! And so when follow suit. Aye, the living was easy, and we lost war comes it won't be something of our impetus.' 484 485 Then how will you get it back?' bers of the Wamphyri? She knew it had happened to 'Oh, I know the way. When you, me and the dog-Lord others, yes, but to Wratha? What if the feelings she felt start working together, and when the others see our get, now deep inside were merely fleeting, insubstantial then they'll unite as stated. And when they see our new things? Well, so be it. Ah, but what if Nestor's feelings monsters? Our aerial warriors and fighting creatures? were the same? One thing for the Lady Wratha to reject a And when we make gas chambers and fashion our own lover, but to be rejected? beasts? And when we double and redouble the numbers He was moaning in his sleep, tossing and turning a little, of our lieutenants? Hah! They'll do the same. We shall perhaps beginning to come awake. She had never stayed cause them to gear themselves for war. We shall be their with him before, in his mind, to the point of waking. inspiration!' Previously, she'd entered and inserted her erotic pictures - Nestor nodded. 'The entire stack will benefit and be dreams of herself, the two of them together, as now they that much stronger.' had been together - and departed. Or on occasion she'd 'Exactly! Even as you are strong.' She got down in the spied on his own lustful dreaming to discover his bed and trapped him between her breasts, gentling his preferences. But now ... ... What was it that disturbed bruised, jerking shaft, then took him in her mouth and him? She glanced into his mind - but too late! He was entered his tip with the sharp points of her split tongue. coming awake, right now. 'Wait!' Nestor groaned, inverting himself and burying And all she got was a single word, a name, but a name his face in her core. And: that glowed in his mind like an iron in a fire: Misha. Together? she whispered in his mind, feeling his A girl's name ... imminent explosion - and her own - as she drew him into And Wratha wondered: Is this the unknown Other? her throat. Nestor's unrequited love out of Sunside? But no need to Together, he answered, sucking on her elongated wonder, for she knew it was. clitoris like a calf on an udder. So that in a very little He yawned and sat up. 'Wratha?' He looked at her, while they both drew milk. reached for her - but she was up and out of bed, slipping And revelling in each other's juices, the thought into a robe. 'Wratha? Is something wrong?' He was sleepy, occurred to both of them together: that if the blood was but perhaps he'd glimpsed her eyes. 'Wrong?' she almost the life, then surely the milk was its spice ... ran into her dressing-room. 'Why, no. What could be wrong?' But in her mirrors the Lady saw what was wrong. They slept long and long, but Wratha was first to come And fitting a curved bone scarp to her brow, turquoise awake. Then, stroking him where he lay on his back, earrings in the lobes of her conch ears, and sapphire discs listening to his heartbeat, his breathing, and feeling the to her cheeks, she sought to disguise the evidence of her slow rise and fall of his massive chest, she wondered wrath: the way her eyes bulged, and their crimson, hell-fire again: love? glare! Was it possible, between vampires? Between mem- 487 486 Misha! It took all of five minutes to lock the name out of her head. And another five to cool the incredible fires racing VII Wratha's in her vampire blood. And: Love? she wondered again, New Raiders but kept the thought to herself. Or shouJd it be hate? Or was the dividing line between the two too narrow? But she knew the name of that dividing line well enough. It was jealousy! That the dog-Lord Canker Canison was crazy in his fashion, and deranged as any feral creature who falls under the influence of the full and hurtling moon, was not to be denied; but as Nestor had pointed out to his vampire lover in her bed, at other times and in other ways Canker was sane as could be and might even be considered wise. As now, for instance. For when it came to a choice of allies, the Lord of Mangemanse had neither time nor kind words for Wran and Spiro Killglance, his closest neighbours, and he was equally disdainful of Gorvi the Guile down in the aerie's shadowy sump. But sane or crazy, the overriding factor in his decision was this: that the necromancer Lord Nestor Lichloathe had seen fit to join up with Wratha in her scheming, and if it was good enough for him it was good enough for Canker. Such was the dog-Lord's affection for his young friend, let Nestor merely suggest something . . . it was done. At a meeting in Wrathspire, the three devised a strategy: tactics of a sort against the Szgany. And in the next sundown, taking their warriors, lieutenants, and even aspirant lieutenants with them, they put it into practice and went raiding en masse on Sunside. And it was a raid to remember! Wratha had no knowledge of warfare, and neither Canker nor Nestor was any better equipped. And so 489 their plan was simple: one party to flush the Szgany out; themselves good relaunching sites, thus forming a gantlet. one to form a gantlet like a net, wide at the entrance and And so the net extended itself south. narrowing to a tight neck; and a third lying in ambush, to Four or five miles out over the forest, the two parties block any escape and turn the prey back into the killing performed an aerial pincer movement and joined up in one zone. body. Then, except for Nestor and Wratha themselves, How it worked: and their first lieutenants, the remaining flyers landed The three and their forces crossed the barrier their riders without touching down, and lifted off with mountains just an hour after the true sundown. Their empty saddles. And while on high the Lord and Lady crossing point lay midway between the hell-lands Gate turned their mounts about-face and flew north down the on Starside and Settlement on Sunside, which is to say centre of the gantlet, so their thralls on the ground began some forty miles west of the Starside mouth of the Great forging through the woods for the barrier mountains, Pass. Then, while Canker and his pack landed, rested up ensuring that they made as much noise as possible along and waited in the higher Sunside foothills, Nestor, the way. Wratha and theirs split into two groups and headed out Within the gantlet, panicking Szgany groups were across the Sunside forest belt. Wratha angled west while driven in the same direction, by the bellowing of vampire Nestor skewed east, so that when they straightened out to thralls to the rear and the hissing of monsters on the fly parallel they were perhaps two miles apart. And flanks. The night seemed filled with menace: nodding staying well below the clouds, they knew they would be flyers and belching, amorphous, armour-plated warriors amply visible, and the rumble and sputter of their were everywhere, and strutting lieutenants were wont to warriors plainly audible to Szgany on the ground. loom large out of the darkness. Any Traveller groups directly beneath the two aerial Meanwhile — parties would go to earth, freeze, suffer the gut-wrenching - Canker and his pack had come down from the stench of warrior exhaust gasses settling from the night foothills to set up their ambush in the bottleneck, among sky, and wait for the terror on high to pass. But as soon boulders and rocky outcrops where some ancient upheaval as they thought it was safe to move, then they'd break had shattered the forest's floor. And while he waited, so cover, split up, seek safer hiding places. Some would be the dog-Lord conjured a thin vampire mist from his own lucky and relocate themselves outside the entrapment body, and called up a ground mist out of the earth to swirl zone, but others less fortunate would run inwards and all about and give his forces cover ... right into it. . . While returning out of the south: Along the route south - as the twin clouds of ill-omen Wratha and Nestor, performing low, lazy, north-drifting which were Wratha, Nestor and their parties pulsed like circles overhead, used their mentalism to order men and a two-pronged pestilence in the sky - they ordered down monsters in from the flanks, tightening the net. The warriors or the occasional flyer and rider, to occupy trapped Szgany parties fled north, began to meet up with vantage points in the forest and find each other and shoal like panicked fish. Colliding, they milled left and right, met up with nightmares in 490 491 . .. was a dead man. Canker's, Nestor's and Wratha's both directions, and so continued to run ragged and gauntlets seemed painted scarlet. Women and children panting along the one safe-seeming route. But after four were herded to one side, but men were knocked down and a half miles of forest they were on their last legs. and vampirized at once. They saw flyers descending out of the night sky and Two minutes, three, and it was all over. were terrified; the flyers had no riders, but the trapped Eight men, one woman and two thralls had died in the Travellers couldn't know that. Warriors trampled, hissed fray, both of the latter with bolts dead centre in their and roared in the undergrowth; the black shadows of hearts. One of Wratha's senior lieutenants had suffered manta shapes flowed silently over starlit glades; vampire machete slashes to his chest and shoulder; his leathers voices shouted orders. had protected him; he was on his feet and would While from on high, Wratha sent to Canker: Now! survive. Two of the dog-Lord's 'hounds' had been And Nestor, to the small encircling force of thralls and stabbed with ironwood stakes, but not deeply. lieutenants on the ground: Now! Of the twenty-seven Szgany survivors, thirteen were Then, as the carnage commenced, so he and Wratha men or boys, and three of these were greypates. Since descended, landed their beasts, and joined in the free- the old men had little or no value except as meat, Wratha for-all. But it was a short-lived affair. Something less ordered their immediate execution. Their bodies, along than forty Travellers - men, women, and children - had with the other dead, went to fuel the warriors. The rest been caught in the vampire net; seeing there was no way of the males, those who had not yet been recruited in the out, a handful of them tried to fight back. accustomed fashion, were now bled. Wratha and the The men had crossbows. Silver-tipped, kneblasch- Lords claimed the first of these bloody fruits, naturally, soaked bolts zipped in the dark, most of them uselessly; followed by their lieutenants and thralls. razor-honed machetes flashed in starlight, but the arms which wielded them contained neither strength nor hope; Most of the men thus infected fell at once into their ironwood stakes sharpened to needle points were grasped vampire sleep; those who did not were ordered into the in slippery, trembling fists. Against powerful vampire mountains, to cross into Starside before sunup. Then it thralls, leather-clad lieutenants, the Wamphyri was the turn of the fourteen women and girls. themselves - against gauntlets, night-seeing eyes and These had been split into three fairly balanced groups, metamorphic flesh - they were as nothing. The Szgany two fives and a four. The Lady Wratha took the smallest were utterly exhausted; the lingering stench of warriors share of the get in females and turned her senior and sickened them; their aim was off. junior lieutenants loose on the shivering, ragged quartet. Canker's thralls - his 'hounds' - rounded them up. There's more than one way to vampirize a woman, and Loping among them like one of their own wolves, they her men had done exceedingly well this night. It was scarcely saw the dog-Lord himself until they felt his bite Wratha's idea of a small reward. in arm or thigh, or he reared up to snarl and spray saliva, Watching the mass rape - the swift and merciless and smash his fist stunningly into the side of a victim's shredding of garments, the naked, cringing girl-flesh, head. Anyone seen to be carrying a crossbow 492 493 the twining, spastically jerking limbs and thrusting of 'What now?' Nestor asked Wratha where she sat by tightly knotted buttocks, and all the mauling, gasping the fire, her scarlet eyes made golden by its glow. and sobbing - Nestor had to admire Wratha's style; her 'Now?' She looked up at him and her gaze might men would remember and be grateful. Learning from it, almost be vacant. But then in a moment the glow he set his own lads loose on his get of five, and stood beneath her scarp blazed up brighter, and her voice close to Wratha where each of them recognized the more animated as she answered: 'Now we unload this other's excitement. And looking forward to their time lot in our manses ... and then we come back for more!' together, they knew how good it was going to be in 'What, tonight?' Wratha's bed at sunup. 'Why not? We've been asleep for far too long, all of As for Canker: where women were concerned, no us. And if my plan to galvanize the stack is to work, mere thrall came before him! He took each of his five in then we need to show Gorvi, Wran and Spiro that we turn, and rapidly, but saved himself for the last one, a mean business. Can't you just see their eyes popping girl of no more than fifteen years, who he took from the when they see this lot? They'll be over here as quick as it rear like the dog he was. And finishing with each he takes to tell, trying their damnedest to catch up with us. tossed them to his men, howling: 'Don't let them go And I want them to! If I can't make them work with me, wanting, lads! Let them know what is their lot, in then let them think they're working against me, just as Mangemanse!' long as it's to the same end. For you'd better believe me, In a little while it was over. The worst of the raping at Nestor, time is running out. I feel it in the wind out of the least... east: Turgosheim is stirring and it won't be long now.' Then Canker's lieutenants built a fire and the two 'In which case,' he took her hand and helped her up, sweetest, youngest children were butchered for roasting. It 'if we've armies to make, then we'd best be at it.' was by way of a celebration. Shortly, the vampire thralls They broke camp, mounted up, and launched into the sat around in red-flickering light and ate smoking flesh, night. And sated for the moment they headed for Star- while those of them who still had the urge and the side and the last aerie ... wherewithal dragged half-stunned women away into the bushes to shag them. Four hours later they struck again, this time five miles Then to the final count, when it was calculated that east of the Great Pass and on the edge of the forest belt. the total remaining get was twenty-two, five of which And this time, too, a different tactic. Leaving Nestor in were already en route across the mountains for Starside the foothills, Canker and Wratha used their parties to and the last aerie. Most of the females would go on the form an arc two miles across and cutting a mile deep backs of flyers, and the rest would follow on foot. All of into the forest. Dropping down from their flyers but them should make it. Wratha would claim eight all told, leaving them airborne along with the warriors, they and seven each to Nestor and Canker. It had been an then tightened the arc in the direction of Nestor. The excellent raid, and as yet only seven or eight hours into warriors flew to and fro over the catchment area, filling sundown. 494 495 it with their gasses and destroying the will of any 'Your dissatisfaction?' Canker barked. 'Aye, it is.' Travellers caught in the trap. Then I'll explain,' Nestor nodded. And to Wratha: 'You And it worked. Driven north as the vampire net see, Lady, you are not the only one who can think and closed, the Szgany fled straight into the arms of Nestor plot for the future; I also have a mind. Very well, so and his party. The catch was smaller than before but still tonight we were successful - to an extent. We've considerable: six males, four women, and five children. replenished our manses, with blood and meat and good Two elders crippled with rheumatism were killed out of strong working muscle, no doubt about that. But an aerie hand and divided between the warriors; the four needs more than that. Canker has explained to me that in youngest were put to death and taken for meat; the Turgosheim the Wamphyri were excessive in their remaining get was split three ways to be flown back to requirements, depleting their Sunside prey to the point of the last aerie. And at that Wratha called it a night. decimation. Why, you almost committed the ultimate Back in Wrathspire, they met to talk and count coup. folly: to wipe out the Szgany, whose blood was your And Canker was jubilant: source of life. That was the main reason why you fled Ten! I can't believe it! In my vats, I've a warrior here in the first place: to find the makings for expansion, waxing which I intended to terminate for lack of stuff, which were lacking in Turgosheim.' but now I can bring him along. There are fresh women 'All true,' Wratha agreed. for my pups, several of whom have gone without. I was 'And yet now, here in the west, we pursue the same even thinning down my manse's workforce, in order to course as before!' satisfy the requirements of the kitchens and the Canker snorted. 'Hah! But impossible to deplete this provisioning. But now my rosters are filled again, and Sunside to that extent! There are thousands of them out even muscle to spare. What a night!' there!' 'We've done well,' Wratha nodded. She had changed 'Not impossible.' Nestor shook a finger at him. 'And into lounging clothes: a thin sheath that fitted her anyway, that's not the point.' gorgeous body like a glove, slippers, a jewelled scarp Then what is the point?' Wratha was genuinely upon her brow. Every inch a beautiful 'girl', it was hard curious, for it was quite obvious that this was not just to believe that she had survived a hundred years and Nestor being argumentative in the manner of the more. The blood is the life ... Wamphyri. They were in Wrathspire's great hall, gathered round a He leaned back in his chair, away from the fire, and blazing fire and sipping wine. It should have been a said: 'Now tell me: how many of our western Szgany celebration, but Nestor was frowning. He had something tribes are supplicant? Oh, in Turgosheim's Sunside, all of on his mind, which caused him to display his irritation them, I know. But how many here?' and frustration. 'One,' Canker answered it for him. They are two 'Out with it,' Wratha said after a while, and he looked hundred and eighty strong and live in a town fifteen up in something of surprise. miles east of the Great Pass, between the foothills and 'Is it that obvious?' the forest. They work in metals and are good at making 496 497 and mending gauntlets. But they are few in number, as know, I was a Lidesci, upon a time - not related by blood, stated, and so we take only their goods, not their lives. no, but of that tribe? And I dwelled in Settlement.' Their fathers and grandfathers were supplicant in the old 'Huh!' She snarled. 'Settlement! And how may we quell times, before we came here, and it appears the weakness the Szgany - herd them, pen them, put them to work, milk was bred into them. They supply us with honey, grain, them! - when this Lardis sets such an example? He's nuts and fruits, beasts and preserved meat, wine and clever as a fox; he controls superior killing weapons; and materials for our clothes, and metal tools for our thralls.' his territory - yes, his territory, damn his rancid Gypsy 'Exactly,' said Nestor. 'One small township, and we heart! - is one enormous trap ... for the Wamphyri! Lords and Lady take a regular tithe of them and divide it Indeed, the only difference between him and us is this: five ways: between Guilesump, Madmanse, Mange- we must fly out from Starside into Sunside to kill, while manse, Suckscar and Wrathspire. Except I don't know if he stays home and does it! Kills us, or would if he got the you've noticed, but each time we collect, the takings are chance! And certainly he has killed our lieutenants, that much smaller! Honey grows scarce and the warriors, flyers and what all. Moreover, the rest of the granaries are close to empty; our flyers go hungry. So Szgany are following suit. Lardis has given them heart; tonight we fed our warriors ... ah, yes! But when was he shows them the way; why, it's even dangerous to go the last time they had it red? To simply exist is not anywhere near him!' Too furious to go on, she fell silent. enough.' Canker scratched his long bottom jaw and said: Then Wratha said nothing. She was beginning to see his all seems simple to me . . . well, the solution, if not the point. means of execution. We have to raid on Settlement, find He looked at her again. 'Now, Wratha: you've said we this man and do away with him. We have to crush his must build an army. Good! I agree. But of what? Why, people, their will, and of all the Szgany bring them to we barely have the means to satisfy our individual needs heel first. Following which, any other resistance will soon as they are, without that we feed entire armies! What we collapse.' need are more supplicant Szgany tribes. If all of Sunside 'Agreed,' said Wratha. 'But how?' were in our grasp, to use as we desire, then we would be 'Wait!' Nestor got to his feet, and faced her across the unconquerable! As for Vormulac and the rest of your hearth. 'Are you now considering a raid on Settlement, "friends" in the east: let 'em come!' the Lidescis?' He had to turn her from it. If Misha was She stood up, put her hands behind her back, walked there, among the Szgany Lidesci, then he must wait until this way and that before the fire. 'You are right. And we his olden enemy - his Great Enemy, his brother -returned could do it, too - bring all of the Szgany tribes to heel, as to claim her. But these were thoughts which he guarded in Turgosheim - but for one thing.' closely and kept to himself. 'Oh?' 'I've always considered it,' Wratha answered, her 'Lardis Lidesci!' The name fell from her lips like acid. girlish face twisting into something else entirely. 'And 'I know what you mean,' said Nestor. 'And did you 498 499 I've tried it, with disastrous results! Now I want revenge, then settle down again in permanent camps and towns. for all they have destroyed which was mine, and for all They shall hunt, gather, farm for us, as in Turgosheim. of my frustration!' Except we shall stick to our promise and not take flesh 'And you'll have it,' he said, 'but not now. Shortly, but and blood. But any who don't see fit to work for us -' he not now.' shrugged,'- they are fair game.' 'When, then?' 'Fine,' Canker growled. 'And just suppose we do 'When we're strong enough. When we're so strong manage to set up a system of tithe-paying Szgany that all the traps and lures, shotguns and giant camps. How do we protect them from Wran and the crossbows, silver and kneblasch and everything else others?' they can throw at us just won't be enough! That's when.' They'll set up their own,' Nestor answered. 'If they hit And when Nathan returns, to be with the one he stole our supplicants, we hit theirs. It's as simple as that. As from me. for following Lardis's example: he is in the west while Canker's turn to be curious. 'Shotguns?' our metal-workers dwell in the east. It seems unlikely Nestor blinked, frowned, shook his head and closed that the methods of the Lidescis have spread so far his eyes for a moment. 'A . . . a memory, I think, from abroad.' my past, my time among them. Shotguns, aye. Their 'It might work at that,' Wratha mused. 'And in any weapons which fire pellets of silver. Weapons out of . . . case, anything is better than inactivity. Very well, we'll another world? But I . . . I can't remember more than try it. The night is still young. What say we attend to our that. Let it be.' His furrowed forehead cleared. new recruits, get a little rest, then fly out to see our Wratha waited until she was sure he was himself supplicant gantlet-makers and give them our again, then asked: 'And how do you suggest we go about instructions?' making more supplicant tribes? These people were Canker didn't seem too happy with this arrangement, settled when first we came here, town dwellers in the but: 'Very well,' he growled. 'But will it take all of us? main. But now they're Travellers as in the old days. Or, I've not yet had the chance to properly ... explore the like this Lardis Lidesci and his lot, they inhabit night's get. My new females interest me. I have my crumbling old towns by day, and sneak into their hidy- needs, as well you know.' holes at night.' 'We're all in the same position,' Nestor told him. 'All Nestor nodded. This is how I see it,' he said. 'We send of our new people require proper indoctrination. And our metal-working friends as messengers out into the you ... how much time do you need for the rutting woods and along the old Szgany trails, to carry our anyway?' promise abroad: good will and long life to any Szgany Canker grinned. And: 'Damn you, Nestor!' he said, tribe or group who will work for us on Sunside. They but without malice. 'You read me as well as you read will be required to pay us a tithe in all of their good one of your dead people!' things, in return for which we'll spare them, even as we 'We're in this together,' Wratha said, 'and so we must spare the metal-workers. In their new security, they can see it through together. Six hours before dawn we 500 501 comparatively easy lives (at least that they were safe and set out, just we three and a couple of lads apiece, and a settled, not wandering in the wilderness or starving in warrior each to act as guard dogs.' foothill caverns), and like them they were now prepared As they prepared to go their separate ways, Canker to pay for protection - so long as the tithe was of goods, said: 'I can't wait to see Wran's face when he hears of our not flesh and blood. It was hardly a satisfactory existence, success this night!' but at least it was bearable and a life of sorts. It had to be And Wratha told him, 'He has already heard it.' She better than living in constant fear of vampire raids, of smiled a wicked smile, then tilted her chin and looked being eaten or enslaved and dragged into Sunside as meat demure. 'Surely you know I have spies in all the manses ... on the hoof. well, no longer in Suckscar and Mangemanse, not now Gorvi and the Killglance brothers had been quick to that we're colleagues. But in Guilesump and Mad-manse, take up the challenge. That was how they saw Wratha's certainly. I instructed certain persons in my employ to new alliance with Nestor and Canker: as a challenge, of watch our movements very closely, and to report them to course. Despite that the Lady claimed her group's activities their supposed masters. Spies are not only useful for were purely defensive - which well they might be, for the picking up information, but also for spreading it abroad. possibility of an invasion out of Turgosheim was by no Wran and Spiro know what we've done tonight, aye, and means negligible - still this full-speed buildup of muscle so does Gorvi the Guile. And it's my guess they're was very worrying to them. What if no outside threat together even now, making plans of their own to bring materialized? How then would Wratha and her allies use them up to par. Except we have the lead, and so they must their warriors and men at arms? To annex the rest of the work hard at it.' stack? Possibly. Canker and Nestor grinned and made for an exit, and But while Gorvi, Wran and Spiro joined forces, they Wratha called after them, 'Until later.' But in Nestor's drew the line at setting up tithe-camps of their own. It mind: not too much later. See to your new thraJJs and was easier and faster to concentrate their existing forces in return. I'll have a hot bath waiting, and something even mass attacks on Sunside, as Wratha had done at first, to hotter/ fill their manses with lieutenants, thralls, warriors and She knew it was a promise he couldn't resist... flyers, and generally bring themselves to battle- worthiness. And because the Lady's forces were for the For the next four months all went as planned, or as nearly moment superior, the ulterior triad must grit its teeth and as possible. Supplicant camps proved hard to get started, hold off from raiding on her new supplicant camps. But and at first were made up of very small Szgany groups. the toll they took on the rest of the Travellers, especially But once they were established and uneasy contact with in the regions west of the pass, was massive. the vampire Lords and Lady had been made - when the And so the last aerie was filled with life of sorts, and first tithes were taken, and no blood spilled - the idea Wratha was satisfied - to a point. But there remained caught on. For the Szgany east of the pass were tired of several thorns in her side, which she could neither salve running. They knew that the cowardly metal-working nor remove. The sharpest of these was Nestor Wamphyri supplicants lived 503 502 Wratha had spied on him out of habit, she had seen that Lichloathe's refusal to raid on Settlement. Wratha had he now kept to himself, except for herself. guessed the reason (that Misha, his unrequited love, was So, she no longer had any rivals here in the last aerie. there, which he would not jeopardize), but without But in Sunside ...? knowing Nestor's real motive: that he was waiting for his Great Enemy to return out of far places to claim her in his Towards the end of that same four-month period of great own right. Then he would make his move, and claim both activity and productivity, one sunup in the twilight hours of them . . . before night: Nestor and Wratha had taken a meal together in the When they were not raiding, collecting tithe, seeing to the Lady's apartments. They'd shared common but satisfying administration of their manses, Nestor and Wratha spent fare: suckling pig roasted on a spit over glowing most of their time together. It was a mutual fascination, ironwood embers, and sliced Sunside fruits in aromatic and one that waxed rather than waned. When she was on Szgany brandy; all washed down with a peppery wine. her own, Wratha found herself thinking of Nestor - Then they'd made love and slept wrapped in each other's always. Since he was now accessible, she'd mainly given arms awhile, and had woken up to find themselves up her mental invasions of his privacy, but she could making love again! Afterwards, Wratha had made a last never give up her consuming preoccupation with the attempt to bring Nestor round to her way of thinking and thought of him: his beautiful young body, his sexual convince him that they and Canker should now launch a energy, and his determination -which rivalled her own — massive joint attack on Settlement -ostensibly to bring to be a leader among men, even among the Wamphyri. down Lardis Lidesci. Being Nestor, of course he'd once That might become a problem one day, for there can only again refused to be swayed. be one leader of leaders. But that day was still a long way Now, while she felt frustrated within herself, off. A joint bone-throne, maybe? paradoxically the Lady felt nothing of anger towards In which case, obviously Wratha's love-thralls would Nestor. How could she possibly be angry with him, her have to go. Except . .. they already had! Where Wrath- lover, the young and handsome Lord Nestor Lichloathe spire was concerned they were less than drones now. of Suckscar? So that she issued a wry, silent snort and Why, she hadn't taken a man - any kind of man - since wondered: that first time with Nestor! She'd not needed to, for she Ah, but then again, how can a Lady of the Wamphyri was satisfied in that respect as never before. And of possibly feel so . . . so what? So soft? So hurt? So much like course, he would have to give up his vampire women. some common Szgany slut on Sunside? So . . . jealous? But But there again, it appeared he'd already chosen that jealous of what? An unknown girJ out of his past, even out course for himself. He no longer so much as looked at his of his mind? Some figment of his impaired memory? Why, female thralls; even his old flame out of Sunside, Glina, for a]] I know this Misha is a hag - or dead even - or with her supposed 'innocent' sex, had been unable to someone Nestor would find unworthy now that he is tempt him. On those few occasions when Wamphyri! 505 504 But for all her attempts to apply cold logic to her Nestor, she even thought like a woman ... like the confused emotions, still the Lady paced the floor of her common Szgany women of Sunside ... bedroom, to and fro while her lover lay sleeping in her great ... Like this Misha? bed. And glancing sideways at him from time to time, she And had she wanted his children, too? considered her options; or rather her ... her what? Her That last thought increased Wratha's frustration plight? That she was in love with him? fourfold and even made her feel angry towards him! She Was it love, she wondered yet again, for maybe the whirled towards her great raised bed ... and saw that he hundredth time? Certainly something was wrong with was stirring. She had thought he was asleep, but what if her. It wasn't simply that he was always on her mind. No, he'd been merely drowsing? Had he been listening in on for more than just a thought, Nestor was in her eyes, her her thoughts? Was he even now? nostrils, her ears and mouth; and Wratha knew that she She shielded them at once! Her pride ... Nestor must could never have enough of him in her body! never know how deeply he . . . the strength of . . . he When they were apart: must never know! For such knowledge would make him She could taste him on the sensitive buds of her forked strong and Wratha weak. tongue. She could smell him - the pungent odour of his He groaned and raised himself up a little on one body, sweat, parts — like the scent of some weird Sunside elbow, and she forced a smile and said, 'Oh? Awake at orchid. She could feel him driving into her core, and see last, are you? And nothing stirring? Well, that makes a his face above her face: how his mouth fell open and his change! If I didn't know you were Wamphyri, I might eyes closed, the perspiration forming on his brow in the suppose you were merely human after all! But see, I've instant that he fired his juices into her. And she could feel brought a little wine.' the hot splash of those juices, too, laving her insides: the She poured smoky Szgany wine from a jug into a way his sperm lived in her, tens of thousands of mindless goblet and took it to him. And at the top of the wooden minuscule lives ... until her parasite leech released its own steps she kneeled beside him where he lay naked and juices, like an acid to burn these tiny intruders. spreadeagled. Of course, that last didn't have to be. She could will it As he took the goblet and slaked his thirst, she tilted otherwise if she so desired. She could still her leech and her head on one side, smiled again (but softly this time, let Nestor's seed live, and bring forth a child. But for and almost as naturally as the girl she pretended to be) what? She required no bloodsons, to grow up into men and said: 'Look at you, Nestor, all sated and sprawled who would covet her manse and position. And yet . . . it there defenceless as a child. Why, I could have poisoned would be an experience, to produce a child out of Nestor's that wine with grains of silver! While you were sleeping, I seed and her egg - her human egg, of course... could have anointed you with oil of kneblasch, or Hah! But wasn't that just the trouble? Thinking of plunged a silver dagger into your heart. Even now I could call one of my guardian creatures to slurp your soft flesh. Is it that you've no fear, or simply that you love and trust me?' 506 507 'It could be all three of those things,' he answered with Nestor's face was hidden. Wratha suspected that he hid it a grin, 'or none of them. But mainly it's that I can't get up deliberately; also his feelings, his true thoughts: that off my backside!' And only half-mockingly he added: indeed there was something more. But not something 'What, and do you intend to kill me, then? As you killed which she could give him. And scanning his mind - and Karl the Crag in your bed in Cragspire? If so, then do it meeting with a blank wall - her suspicion seemed now while I'm happy.' confirmed. 'Karl was my master,' she answered, frowning. 'Or Turning her face away so as not to show her thought he was. But he was not my lover. I've never had disappointment, she pushed him away, hurried down the a lover, until you.' She reached out and gentled his steps and passed through into her dressing-room. Dressing, flaccid, lifeless parts. They were bruised, but what is that she heard him call out: 'Wratha? Is there something?' to a vampire Lord? Then, still frowning, she said: 'But... What's more, she felt his querying probe in her mind and happy? Did you say happy?' immediately brought down mental shutters to close him She found it odd that he would use such a word, for out. vampires were rarely, if ever, happy. Happiness ... just 'No, nothing,' she called back to him. 'But night falls wasn't part of their landscape. Wratha must put it down fast and we've business to attend to.' What she really to the fact that he wasn't long Wamphyri, and still meant was that she had business to attend to. occasionally thought in Szgany terms. Oh, the Wamphyri On Sunside. knew well enough how to enjoy: how to revel in scarlet Killing business ... extravagance, and glut themselves with their excesses; how to laugh and roister, thrill and exult, usually at the expense and the pain of their victims. Certainly they understood pleasure: the gratification of their enhanced appetites and lusts in feasting, drinking and fornication - but again and always at the expense of others. Indeed, that was their only 'happiness': the outrage and agony of common humanity. But Wratha suspected that Nestor had meant the true happiness, which astonished her. So that again she asked him: 'And are you .. . happy, Nestor?' 'I think so.' He clasped her to him. 'I have all that a man needs, and in you more than any man could ever need! What more is there? Unless there's some special delight which you haven't yet shown me.' Holding her like that, with his chin over her shoulder, 508 was jealous of a past in which she had no part, and of a supposed love which she could not even begin to VIII Wratha's understand. For she had never known love - not as a common woman - until Nestor, and feared that she might Rout - Glina's End never know it again. Savagely territorial, the Wamphyri do not give up their possessions easily. And Lord Nestor of Suckscar now belonged to Wratha the Risen, though not as much as Wratha belonged to him. Rivalry? For Nestor's love, his lust? Not in Wrath- Wratha's orders were simple: put the women to death, all stack, not any longer. For he was well and truly seduced, of them. and Wratha even more so, indeed completely besotted. Not ravish them, or stun them and drink from the But in Sunside, possibly. Or impossibly, when her will scarlet streams of their hearts, or by any other means was done. And with regard to the Lady Wratha's will, and molest and vampirize them, but simply kill them out of to orders, there was one other command which she issued: hand - dead! All of the women, the girls, even the If any man should discover a Misha among the Szgany smallest infant females of the Szgany Lidesci wherever Lidesci's women, he was to bring her at once, unharmed in they were found. And not just for the duration of this any way, to Wratha. Then she would be harmed, be sure, raid, but in all future raids, too. but not before the Lady had examined her most minutely, to For if there were no women, Wratha told herself discover Nestor's preferences in women generally, and that contrarily (for of course she knew her real purpose in which he most fancied in Misha specifically. Following ordering this enormous atrocity), then eventually there which.. .Wratha would eat her living, smoking heart, and would be no children; and without children the feed the rest of her to the frenzied warriors. troublesome Lidescis would fade away and vanish in a Which was the circuitous route by which the Lady's single generation. Which is not a long time to one who lieutenants finally came to understand that it was an has lived as long and remained as young as Wratha the unknown girl, a mysterious Misha, who was the real reason Risen, or at least young in appearance. It was her way of why their Lady mustered her men- and monsters-at-arms making logical an entirely illogical command. For if the in the early twilight, and waited impatiently for the last same rules were applied in all of Sunside, then Nestor's golden streak to fade from the peaks of the barrier prognosis would come true and it would be Turgosheim mountains before launching them south for Sunside, all over again. Settlement, and infamous Lidesci territory. But the truth of it was that her order would only apply And all of this while most of the stack's inhabitants lay here, in Lidesci territory, and her reason for issuing it was asleep. likewise simple: pure (or impure) jealousy, with perhaps a But not all of them ... jot of vengeance thrown in for good measure, to cover her previous losses. Mainly the Lady 510 511 Nestor stood alone with his thoughts, gazing from a Nestor gave a start, stared, then glared south-west. It window in his south-facing room of repose. As usual, his was Wratha, aye ... and her entire entourage - Wrath- eyes rested on the grey peaks of the craggy barrier spire's not inconsiderable army — even now on their way mountains way beyond the distantly pulsating glowworm to Sunside! But without him? Without Canker? What was of the hell-lands Gate. There in the south-west, beyond she up to? the high scarps and plateaus, and across the foothills, at Wratha, her six lieutenants, twice as many apprentices, the edge of the forest, lay the once-bustling township of and four warriors, two of them only recently waxed, all Settlement. And somewhere in the wilderness around that spurting or pulsing south under throbbing gas-bladders battered pile of a place - in the dark woods or cavern- and vibrating manta wings; and all attired for battle. Even riddled cliffs, or in the hollow roots of the mountains from here, Nestor could clearly see the sheen of starlight themselves - the Szgany Lidesci had their hiding places to on blue-green armoured scales and part-sheathed claws; which they retreated at fall of night. the bright gleam of gauntlets and polished black leather But of all the Wamphyri in the last aerie, Nestor was jerkins. the only one who actually knew the location of their And he knew, of course, where she was going. But he principal refuge. It had come to him in Wratha's bed, as didn't know why. He could only suppose it was to bring she had tried to convince him to raid on Settlement. A down Lardis and destroy the Szgany Lidesci: Wratha's fleeting vision out of the past, from his forgotten stubborn pride, aye. Since Nestor had seen fit to deny her childhood and youth: of a great hollow boulder, almost a his aid at this time, she'd do the job herself and put him to small mountain in its own right, in the Sunside foothills. shame! And its name was Sanctuary Rock! But if by chance she were successful and struck A fleeting vision, aye, but one which Nestor had devastating blows against Lardis and Settlement, and wanted to retain, which he'd assigned to his currently perhaps went on to find Sanctuary Rock ...? perfect memory before closing his thoughts on it, to keep What of Misha then? Much more importantly, what of it safe in his secret mind. This was the essence of the Nestor's olden enemy, his Great Enemy, his treacherous secrecy which Wratha had sensed in him: not thoughts of brother? Would he ever return, if the Szgany Lidesci were Misha, but of Sanctuary Rock in the foothills - that no more? honeycombed boulder, that maze of caves, burrows, From somewhere came the wail of a child: Glina's pitfalls and gantlets - where it backed up massively into adopted brat, which Nestor had brought out of Sunside. the roots of the barrier mountains. The future refuge of Glina: hah! Canker had been right: it had been a his Great Enemy when at last he returned. But only let mistake to bring her into Suckscar. Fair and considerate Wratha discover it first ... and all dreams of vengeance in her managing of the rosters, she had grown too strong. were flown right out the window - All of the women liked her, and since she controlled them - Even as Wratha herself was now flown! and their duties, Nestor's lieutenants and thralls liked her, too! She could match them up and 512 513 cater for their affairs to order, or for favours. He had that together we're strong, and divided we fall.' He loped given her too much power. to Nestor's side, looked out of the window, saw what And that child, that entirely human toddler in Suck- Nestor had seen. scar: what of him? For all that he was sweet meat - fair Canker had been escorted here by Zahar, which was game, and pure and innocent as only a child can be -the scarcely necessary; everyone in Suckscar, and Mange- bloodlusting vampires of the manse handled him as if he manse, too, was aware of Nestor's and Canker's were of their master's flesh, Nestor's own son, his friendship. It was simply a custom (or precaution?) of the bloodson! Was that Glina's idea - that one day this brat aerie: that any and all visitors should be escorted, even would get her master's egg and become a Lord in his own when they were expected. right? Nestor caught Zahar's eye. 'Go, alert your colleagues. Well if that was what she thought, she could think We ride out within the hour. But prepare my flyer at again. Suckscar was only the beginning; and after that, all once, for I might go on ahead.' of Wrathstack, soon to be Lichspire. Then Sunside in its And after Zahar had gone, Nestor turned to Canker: entirety, and all of Starside, too, including the blackened, 'Disaster? For Wratha? What do you mean?' exploded stumps of the fallen aeries, those that were still 'I scry on future times,' the dog-Lord answered. 'A habitable. And - and then what? Tur-gosheim in the east? dodgy business at best! But sometimes when I dream, I Why not? can't help the things I see. Wratha isn't going to have an But - with Wratha at his side? easy time of it on Sunside. She goes against the Lidescis, Well, she'd be at his side to start with, anyway .'.. am I correct? I thought so. And they're waiting for her, be But there was only one real destiny for the necromancer sure. That's why I came to see you. To warn you against Lord Nestor Lichloathe of the Wamphyri: unopposed accompanying her.' Emperor of a sprawling Vampire Dynasty, not only here 'You saw me in your dream?' Nestor knew that the in the west but across the Great Red Waste, too, and other's scrying was true. In many small ways, he'd had further still, in whatever lands might be discovered! the proof of it often enough. Except ... his revenge on his Great Enemy must come 'Neither you nor myself,' Canker answered. 'But I came first. But not if Wratha ruined it by destroying the Szgany up anyway, in order to be sure.' Lidesci. 'Will she be hurt?' He must stop her! 'Only her pride. But she'll suffer losses, aye. How Nestor turned from the window in haste, and saw the would you have stopped her, anyway?' dog-Lord watching him from the doorway. And: 'No need 'I would first try to reach her mind, from an outside to stop her,' Canker barked, having read Nestor's last balcony, maybe. And if that failed fly after her, to catch thought right out of his head; which was not difficult, for her in the heights over Settlement ...' And realizing his it had been a forceful projection. 'Not unless you'd save error: 'Or if not there, wherever she makes pause to her from disaster. Myself, I think it were better Wratha breathe her mist.' He quickly covered up. learns her lesson here and now: 'No.' Canker shook his head, sending his red hair 514 515 flying. 'No "wherever". Settlement will do fine. But tell Why, Wratha had sucked men to death - with both mouths! me this: are you also a viewer of times, and since when? And as for sex, Nestor was right on that point, too: there Did you also read the future in a dream, and see the were plenty of other women in the world ... troubles waiting for Wratha at the end of her flight? . .. And one especially, in Sunside? Hiding in some Why would you want to stop her? For our sake because hole in the ground, with the Lidescis? she's an ally; for your own sake, because you are into But all of this unspoken and locked in his secret her and would miss it if she were slain; or was it . . . for mind, so that Canker couldn't hear it. some other reason? Ah, but you never have raided on Too late now, in any case,' the dog-thing barked. Settlement, have you?' 'She's well away. Something has angered her and she'll The dog-Lord wasn't smiling. He was missing take it out on the Lidescis if she can. Well, and good something here and knew it. But what? Something luck to her. For she'll need it, be sure. I saw thunder and important? He reached out an instinctive mental probe lightning, Nestor - explosions red, green and orange! Aye, to brush up against Nestor's mind. and I heard the death-screams of men, flyers and 'Would you steal my thoughts?' the necromancer warriors alike - vampire screams, which are different snapped. from those of common men. For while a man's screams Canker backed off, shrugged, whined a little. 'Habit, don't last too long, those of a vampire go on and on and Nestor. Forgive me.' on ...' 'I don't want any harm to come to her,' Nestor said. Nestor was calmer now, thoughtful. 'And yet you say Well, not yet. Not until she's united the stack. For if she'll suffer no harm?' there really is a threat from the east, we may well need 'Not personally, no. Losses among her lads and the Lady Wratha and her dubious qualities. Certainly creatures, certainly.' we'll need her men-at-arms and warriors! But after that ... Then let it be. You're probably right: a lesson learned. there are other women in the world. At which he finally After this, perhaps she'll leave the Szgany Lidesci alone.' recognized the truth: that his lust was all but burned out 'What is it with you and them?' of him and he did not 'love' the Lady after all. A full- 'Something ... old.' Nestor looked away. fledged Lord of the Wamphyri, he didn't love or need 'An old scar, still itching?' anyone. Especially a liar like Wratha. For the fact of it 'Yes.' was that she was a great liar, in her body if not her 'Say no more. You are my brother. I understand.' And tongue. Nestor had mistaken experience for truth, had Canker put an arm round the other's shoulder. been willing to believe that what she gave him was new 'Let's see how it works out for her,' Nestor said. 'What and true. But it wasn't: it was old and false, even as old was it we had scheduled for tonight, anyway? Tithe- and false as Wratha herself. A hag was lurking there collecting east of the pass? Well, our lieutenants are under the sweet girl-flesh. He knew it for certain now. He capable lads. They can tend to that. What say you always had known it, from their first encounter on the roof. How could she expect love? 516 517 and I go spy on Wratha, eh? See what she's up to, and And: 'But there - ah, there! - is the thunder I promised what befalls her. We can observe her and her works you!' The dog-Lord whined and panted; and both of them from the foothills over ...' started massively at the new sights and sounds from But this time Canker was quicker off the mark. 'Over besieged, embattled Settlement. Settlement, aye,' he nodded. 'Very well, I go to prepare A ball of fire, green at first but expanding through yellow and orange to a red glare, bloomed like a giant's ...' torch in the centre of the town. Something writhed in the And Canker had been right. heat and the smoke as the mist was thrown back: a warrior, coiling like a crippled snake as it burned! Then Less than an hour and a half later, he and Nestor the bellowing and belching was drowned out by the blast landed their flyers in the foothills over Settlement. And of a terrific explosion, whose echoes bounced up into the down there, it was much as the dog-Lord had said it mountains to ricochet between the peaks, then down would be. again to the dumbstruck vampire Lords where they gazed Wratha had called up a mist to send rolling in through in astonishment on the scene below. the battered gates and shattered stockade fence of the Amplified in the vacuum left by the explosion, the ruined town. Then she'd surrounded the place as best she challenging battlecries of an uninjured warrior continued might with her lieutenants and thralls, probably three unabated, while those of its stricken twin had turned to men to a side, outside the gates, to deal with any fleeing shrieks of purest agony! Down there in the ruddy night, humans. Overhead, no more than midges at this distance, someone or ones must be throwing oil on the thing in its the Lady herself and her six remaining men-at-arms rode death throes; fires blazed up sporadically all around the their flyers and commanded the warriors. area of the original explosion; the gigantic writhing Her two mature fighting creatures were already down continued, but frenziedly now. inside the fortress walls, battling in the mist (though Battle was truly joined, and no stopping it. And as the with what was hard to say, for Wratha's mist was a good Lady's flyers descended towards the town, black motes one). In the still of the night, however, with their against the flickering illumination of various fires where enhanced Wamphyri senses, Nestor and Canker were they broke out upon the ground, so the sky over not at pains to hear the sounds of battle: the snapping of Settlement came bursting alive with sputtering, brilliant timbers and crashing of collapsing houses; a thrumming blue and emerald-green trails of fire, like shooting stars and whistling, as of huge projectiles in flight; the fired from the walls of the town. awesome belching and growling of furious warriors at 'And there is my lightning!' said Canker. work. And in a little while they more than heard it. A flyer was hit, became a green and yellow fireball full 'But where's the thunder and lightning?' Nestor had of black, tumbling debris! Other flyers panicked, skewing voiced his query just a moment ago, so that it still hung in this way and that and even colliding. The amazed, the air like some weird invocation when the answer outraged cries of stunned lieutenants came echoing up on came ... from below! the stench and turbulence of furious 518 519 explosions and sulphur thermals. A faulty, shrilly 'If she comes this way she'll see us.' Canker was nervous. whistling, madly cartwheeling projectile exploded as it struck another flyer in the root of a manta wing, causing 'Let her!' Nestor spat into the scree. 'Let her know that the blazing, mewling beast to go spirallng down to a we know what a fool she's made of herself!' fiery doom. Its lieutenant rider went with it, burning and 'Ah!' said Canker. 'But you haven't seen Wratha in a screaming all the way. fury, have you?' 'She's being blown out of the sky!' Nestor whispered, Then it's time I did.' to no one in particular. 'Might I suggest some other time?' 'Just as I foresaw it,' Canker nodded grimly. 'We all 'Why not now?' knew that this Lardis was testing new weapons - we saw 'Because she has warriors with her - some of which evidence of it while raiding on the borders of his remain whole and fighting fit - and we don't! Be advised, territories: incredible thunderclaps and flying fires -but Nestor: do not taunt her now. Oh, she'd probably miss this is simply ...' you later, but much too late for Nestor Lichloathe and '... Fantastic!' Nestor finished it for him. And, a Canker Canison! Me, I say we launch and make moment later: 'Look. She's finished.' ourselves scarce.' It was true. Wratha's pride had taken another beating, Nestor was reluctant, but just this once Canker had it but even she knew when it was time to call it a night. Her his way ... flyers were rising up through a fusilade of searing fireballs, and on the ground a part-blazing warrior seemed When Nestor's and Canker's lieutenants were returned hard put to get aloft. Finally it succeeded, and the speed from the tithe-gathering, Nestor sent for Zahar and asked of its rumbling ascent put out the fires in its flanks. But him: at least one of its flotation bladders exploded as it listed 'How did it go?' into the sky. As for the other, less fortunate creature: it 'Well, Lord. Honey, grain, meat and wine. And you? was nothing but a mass of shuddering, steaming meat, Flesh?' gouting fire, smoke and sickening stench now. Nestor shook his head. 'That wasn't our purpose. And And outside the walls, rising from the woods and the don't ask me what our purpose was. As to why I've called lower slopes of the foothills, more flyers made hastily, you here: I have work for you.' erratically aloft, swerving to avoid the bolts of giant 'Only instruct me, Lord. What is it you wish?' crossbows and the rockets of jubilant defenders. It was a 'It's Glina. I want her replaced, both in her quarters rout! and in her duties.' 'So much for raiding on Lidesci territory!' Canker Zahar was taken aback but tried not to show it. He growled low in his throat. shrugged and said, 'Glina has worked well. Now she Nestor nodded. And to himself: In force, openly, a reaps her reward. You will reward her, Lord? With an dangerous game, aye. But covertly, at the right time and easier routine, perhaps? So that she may devote more in the right place? Sanctuary Rock, for instance .... time to the babe?' 520 521 Nestor sighed. 'You are devious, Zahar. All of you are 'Yes, Lord.' And only too glad to be out of his master's devious. No, I will not reward her. She goes on the presence, Zahar retreated. work roster. Choose a woman - the most attractive of my women - to replace her. I'm weary of Glina climbing It was the same sundown. Wratha had been back from the spiral stairs. I have not had her in my bed for .. . oh, her disastrous raid on Settlement for some time, but a long time. Nor will I have her there again. From now never a word out of Wrathspire. Doubtless she licked her on she works with the rest of them, and just as hard. As wounds. for the child: I've no use for a human child in Suckscar. While down in Suckscar: See to it...' Nestor was now Wamphyri in the fullest sense of the Zahar couldn't suppress a gasp. He fought to maintain word. He was enormously powerful, the Lord of a something of his equilibrium. 'You mean, return him to mighty manse, a necromancer who read the minds of Sunside?' men dead in their graves, and also ... Wratha's lover? As 'The choice is yours,' Nestor told him, coldly. 'Sunside to that last: things could change. For as the Lady herself or the provisioning. I have no interest in the matter. Go would be the first to admit, she was after all only a to Glina now and tell her, and by sunup let it be as I woman, no matter how high she had risen. have ordered it.' Ambitious? Oh, she was that, all right! But what of 'You won't tell her yourself?' This was brave of Zahar. Nestor's own ambitions? He supposed they must clash 'Are you saying I fear her?' Nestor looked at him, eventually. It seemed unavoidable. Meanwhile, well, he raised a sardonic eyebrow. 'No, I'm simply sick of her - would make the best of it. It wouldn't be too hard. and of all men and creatures who question me! Perhaps Certainly Wratha knew how to satisfy his lust. you fear her, eh? Or do you simply fear the change, But there's lust and there's lust, which in a man is not when you won't find it so easy to conduct your affairs.' always for the body of a woman. Nestor's lust for 'My ... affairs, Lord?' revenge was powerful. Revenge on his Great Enemy, 'Your own and the affairs of all the others, too.' and on the girl who had betrayed him. That must come Nestor's voice was very quiet, very dangerous now. 'Do first. But afterwards - you think I don't know how she arranges things for you?' - He considered the rest of the stack. Canker first. And now Zahar was very brave. 'But all to Suckscar's The dog-thing was not a problem. It was as if he benefit, Lord.' followed Nestor to heel, like a tame wolf. He would 'There is only one creature in my manse which is make a fine, trustworthy lieutenant when the time came. entirely to Suckscar's benefit,' Nestor told him, in little Then he gave thought to Wran and Spiro. They, too, more than a whisper. 'And I am it! But while I cannot might be brought to heel. Wratha had done it, upon a be replaced, all else can and will be if I see fit. Now go, time. Oh, they had slipped their leashes eventually, but and be sure you carry out my orders.' that was because in bringing them here she had freed them from the tyrannous restrictions of Turgosheim. 522 523 They had seen no point in trading one tyranny for - for the future, when Grig came to him with a message another, one ruthless leader for a yet more ruthless from the Lady Wratha. It was a simple thing: 'Come.' priestess. The Killglance brothers were Lords after all, Grig delivered it and stood grinning. and Wratha only a Lady . . . Usually Nestor would laugh along with him, for his But Spiro: lieutenants knew well enough what this kind of invitation Nestor had heard how he continued to practise his from Wratha signified. But tonight he scowled, and Grig killing eye. And with some success at last. quickly changed his expression. 'Lord?' On Sunside, during a raid, the brothers had got in 'Is her messenger still here?' trouble. Ambushed by desperate Travellers, they'd been 'In the upper corridor where it leads to her landing obliged to fight hand to hand. Spiro had got his gauntlet bays. I left him there, watched over by a guardian.' stuck in the skull of a man, so that it was wrenched from 'Go to him,' Nestor said. 'And tell him to tell her... no!' his hand. Then, as another human attacked him with a Grig gawped. 'Simply that?' machete, he'd tried to use his killing eye. And at last his Nestor shrugged. 'She asked for me with a single word. father's talent was seen to have been passed down to him! And that's how I choose to deny her.' The metaphysical blast from his evil vampire eyes had Grig backed away, turned to go, and Nestor stopped been sufficient to burst his victim's heart, rupture all of his him with another single word. 'Wait.' vital organs, stop him dead -literally! 'Yes, Lord?' So that now, while Wran had his rages (which were 'From now on never smile in my presence unless I terrible in their own right), his brother had the killing eye smile. Do not grin unless I grin. And don't laugh, ever.' of Eygor Killglance. But, of course, men were only weak 'No, Lord.' and the Wamphyri were strong. Nestor did not for a 'And don't forget,' Nestor warned. 'For if you do . . . it's moment believe that Spiro's murderous glance could difficult to smile without lips.' affect him, or any of the stack's vampires for that matter. Grig fled . . . Still, the weird talent of Spiro Killglance would be worth watching out for. The night passed, however slowly. There were no more Finally Gorvi: 'commands' from Wratha that Nestor attend her, though The Guile would not be difficult to sway, not when all on two occasions he sensed her mental groping at the of the others were seen to toe the line. But Nestor knew edge of his awareness. He was strong now and knew how that he would always have to watch him. Gorvi must to shut her out. He did so. never be placed in a position of trust. Indeed, it were The aerie was unusually quiet - not only Suckscar but better if he occupied no position at all - except perhaps a the entire stack top to bottom - like the quiet on Sunside very deep hole somewhere out on the boulder plains ... before a storm. Nestor sensed his colony of giant bats Nestor had got so far with his thoughts - his plans? stirring in their cavern niches and felt ill at ease without knowing the source of his disquiet. He 524 525 hidden in the uproar of mad mathematical eruptions, saw to the manse's administration, then prepared for bed. Nestor saw the infinitely sad, face of a yellow-haired, He did not see Glina, or hear the customary wailing of blue-eyed giant; made sad, perhaps, by the almost sacrificial her adopted child. Obviously Zahar had been diligent in mutilation and slaughter of his teeming dead army. But carrying out his orders. not by that alone. Nestor felt lonely. He called for a girl, took her to his For it was as if Nestor saw behind those plaintive bed. She tried hard to please her master but ... was cold. sapphire eyes right into his enemy's soul; and strangely, No, not cold, but after Wratha there was no real fire in inexplicably, he knew that the giant felt for him, knew her. Nestor sent her away. that his Great Enemy was sorry ... for his brother, He slept... Nestor Lichloathe! ... And dreamed of the numbers vortex. Of that, and of At which a hand fell on his shoulder and he came other - things. starting awake! Nestor's dreams were usually scarlet, as are the dreams And it was sunup. of all the Wamphyri. But this time there was no blood. Zahar was* there, backing away as Nestor shot bolt Instead, he dreamed of a bloodless war, of a battle with upright in his tumbled bed. And the Lord of Suckscar the dead, and Nestor Lichloathe the only living creature was damp with cold sweat, panting for air as he on all the battlefield! adjusted to being awake. Then: He fought alone, with neither men nor monsters to 'What is it?' he demanded, as finally he knew his support him but only his clogged, stinking gauntlet, whereabouts and took a grip on himself. against a teeming legion of the dead whose crumbling, 'It is Glina, Lord.' Zahar's face was pale even for a rotting bodies stood erect again as quickly as he cut them vampire. down! And despite that it was a hopeless task (for who 'What of her?' may kill the dead?) still he willed himself to fight through 'I told her your intentions, your orders, with regard to them to get to That which they protected, the Thing herself and the child. She set to making her quarters clean which commanded them, his Great Enemy from times all and asked me to return in an hour. But when I went but forgotten except in brief flashes of tantalizing memory. back she was not there. Neither Glina nor the baby.' Finally, when he stood panting from his exertions upon 'Fled? But how?' Nestor got up, got dressed. a mound of soul-heaving corruption - human debris Zahar shook his head, sadly Nestor thought. 'No, not whose pieces yet clutched and clawed at him to pull him fled. In hiding. Waiting for sunup.' down - at last the mind-refuge of Nestor's hated opponent 'Explain.' materialized: a rearing, nodding cone Jike a tornado of 'I searched the manse but couldn't find her. She rapidly mutating equations! The numbers vortex! couldn't go up into Wrathspire, or down into Mange- And within the rush and swirl of the tornado, half- manse, and so must be here. But Suckscar is vast, as well you know, and Glina is familiar with every nook and cranny. Also . . . a good many of your people owe 526 527 Wratha was there, too, with several of her lieutenants. her favours, Lord. Perhaps someone had hidden Glina Some of her men would climb up after Glina, but the away, just for a few hours. I hesitate to suggest it, but Lady stopped them. 'No, let's wait and see what this silly that is how it . . . how it begins to . ..' And he paused with woman will do. For it's hard to believe she'd deliberately the accusation only half-spoken. burn herself - not for the love of any man.' And she 'Go on,' Nestor told him. 'I know what you would say: glanced sideways at Nestor. that Glina has friends. Difficult, between vampires, yes. And moving closer to him, smiling - yet hissing like And yet I, too, have one friend at least.' some venomous snake in his mind - she asked: Why did Zahar nodded eagerly, and said: Two, Lord, if you'll you not come to me? only include me.' And he quickly continued, 'I knew she Seeing Wratha again, seemingly demure and recovered must reveal herself eventually, knew she must come out if from the ravages of her Settlement battle - gorgeous in a only to eat or to feed the child. Well, and finally she has revealing gown, and utterly edible - and knowing he come out, but as you see, not until the sun is up.' could be in her even now, Nestor's lust flooded his veins 'Where is she?' to heat his blood as hotly as ever. 'She has climbed by an external route, up onto the Because I had things to do, he lied. south-facing wall of Wrathspire.' Such as? 'And the child?' Removing this one from office, and sending her away 'He is with her.' from me. Suicide, it could only be. And the infant? Far better to Then she is here because of you? let him die now - swiftly, surely, and too young to know Yes, he answered, mainly out of Wamphyri vanity. And that he'd even lived - than take a chance he might go to also because I wouJd send her adopted brat back to the provisioning. So thought Glina. And Nestor knew Sunside — or to the provisioning. she'd thought it. Oh? But I had heard rumours that he was your adopted Take me to where I can see her, talk to her.' son, too. 'Yes, Lord. But . . . you've slept long and long. The sun So much for rumours, Nestor answered. is well up. I fear we'll be too late.' They might have conversed further, but at that point a In any case, they went. And on their way: 'What is it sigh went up from Zahar and the other lieutenants and you would say to her, Lord?' Zahar was curious. 'Is it that thralls where they craned their necks to look up at the you'll try to bring her down?' soaring south-facing wall of Wrathspire. Their viewpoint Nestor glanced at him once only, with eyes that blazed was from a walled, natural promontory or broad balcony up in his face like hell's own fires. And: 'No,' he answered. over Wratha's main landing-bay, whose elevation was 'Let her stay there and wait for the sun to strike. I have some sixty feet short of the bleached-white upper levels. only one thing to say to Glina, and it's this: goodbye!' Up there, along a line so regular it might even be a fault in And from then to Wratha's landing-bays, silence the aerie's rock face, the natural features of fissured accompanied them the rest of the way ... chimneys and ledges, and 528 529 vampire constructed buttresses, windows and cartilage Nestor wanted to cry out, to warn Glina of the sun's catwalks, turned abruptly from a weathered grey colour to approach, command her to come down, find a window, an almost crystalline white, and the very rock itself creep in out of danger. He had thought that compassion seemed calcined with fire. and all such feeble human emotions were dead in him and And indeed it had been, for this was the sun's flown forever, but now seemed unsure. A certain demarcation line, above which the uppermost levels of poignancy, a gnawing frustration, chewed at his insides. the last aerie had been bleached white through centuries Guilt? In a Lord of the Wamphyri? Ridiculous! And and even millennia of purifying sunlight. For when the yet. . . solar furnace rose to its highest point over Sunside and ... What was Glina after all but a harmless creature he'd blazed through the high peaks and passes, this was where stolen out of Sunside? What had she done to deserve an its brilliant rays alighted, like a false halo to blister the end such as this? But if she'd done nothing it was because corrupt head of the stack. she was nothing. Just a stupid Szgany bitch, a snap of the Up there on a ledge, to which she'd scrambled from a fingers. So why should he worry over her fate? cartilage catwalk where it petered out, Glina hugged a Wratha had heard him. Exactly, she's nothing. Why small bundle to her breast and crouched in the shade of a concern yourself? Because she was your first? But think: shallow niche. But it was too shallow, that niche, and Wratha is your last.' And is there any comparison? would not save her when the sun crept beyond the peaks Between me and any Traveller shad? If so, then go to and its rays swept from east to west across the face of some other's bed when your work is done. But be sure if Wrathstack. you do that I won't call for you again! A threat of sorts, Which was why Zahar and the others had issued their but he sensed an edge of desperation in it. Whatever they massed sigh, for even now the eastern corners of the had had together, Wratha clung to it still. It gave Nestor upper spires were turning to glowing, blinding gold, as a power over her, which he would test eventually. But for the seething vertical tide inched across the stone towards moment - Glina in her crevice. She saw it too, and knew it was her - He made no answer, mainly because he was watching time. Then - Glina; also watching the sun, or rather its seething, - She stepped out upon the ledge, and lowered her sighing, cleansing ray lighting up the face of Wrathspire feral eyes upon Wratha, Nestor, Zahar and the rest. But as it drew close to the woman on her ledge. But much too mainly Glina gazed at Nestor with eyes yellow as the late to do anything now. She was doomed. brightening light they reflected, so that he could feel Another sigh went up from the assembled vampires. It them burning on him. was strange: a sigh of horror from such as these! But this And Wratha frowned delicately and said, 'She hates would be their doom, too, if ever the sun should find them you.' out. To which he replied, 'She has good reason.' But his As a life nears its end, time speeds up. Nestor couldn't voice was cracked and dry. remember who had said that: an old man, he believed, At which juncture - a strange thing! For suddenly 530 531 on Sunside, probably. Just another fragment from his Later, he answered, without looking back. For he knew forgotten past fitting itself into place. But as for what it he had power over her. But he also had power over the meant: dead, and now there was one among them who he must A man's youth lasts forever, or seems to. But as he gets speak to . . . older, so the years get shorter. And his last few hours? They must fly like seconds. The same goes for women, of He had her burned, blackened, broken body brought up, course. As for Glina, she was already down to those and in the privacy of his room of repose he approached seconds. Five, four, three, two, one ... and then no more. her. But before he could even touch her: At the end, the sun scythed across her in a rush! You arecursed, Nestor, she told him, in a totally emotionless She felt its deadly light on her face, in her eyes! deadspeak voice, freed now from all the agony of death Her shoulders had been slumped, as in defeat, but now but remembering it well enough. You are all cursed, of she snapped erect on her ledge. And as the first tendril of course, but you especially. smoke puffed up in her hair, she looked one last time He held back and said: 'When I brought you up here down on Nestor, and hurled the baby towards him! from the rubble and the scree, my only thought was to .. . It fell short, and went without a cry fluttering into the comfort you?' Oddly, it was the truth, but even Nestor abyss. It seemed to drift on the air, but in fact fell like a could see the cynicism in it now. stone. And was gone .. . She laughed a laugh empty as space. Not so, Nestor. It Then Glina cried out, but just the once. was to beg my forgiveness.' Except you are Wamphyri and She lifted up her arms to embrace the sun. Her face don't know how. And anyway I do not, will not, cannot blackened in a moment and her shift billowed up from the forgive you. Will you make me? Oh, I know you have the steam and stench rising beneath it. Her hair burst into power. But though I may say the words, you know I'll flames, and her shift followed suit. Yellow fire, almost recant them in the very moment they are spoken. And what invisible in the sunlight, enveloped her. difference would it make? You are cursed. Not by me For a moment more she stood there - like a human alone, but by all the dead.' torch, a sacrifice to the sun - then crumpled to her knees At which the vampire in him rose up. 'So be it! What? and toppled forward into eternity ... And should I fear the dead? On the contrary: they fear me. 'Gone,' said Wratha with some satisfaction. And Hah/' silently, to herself: An old flame, blazing to the end, But after a moment, she told him: For now, perhaps. But finally consumed by its own fire. And all her 'innocence' in the end? You should never forget, Nestor, that all things gone with her. have a beginning and an end. And as for the teeming dead: She turned to Nestor, but he was no longer there. I think you should fear them, yesss ... Instead, she saw him descending from the promontory to He suspected it would be the last thing she ever said to the landing-bay, heading for Suckscar with Zahar. Nestor! him and felt a momentary panic. 'Explain yourself.' she called after him. But she was silent. Then he called for Zahar, and told him: 'In the twilight 533 532 before sundown, bury her in the Starside foothills above the hell-lands Gate. Find a crevice in the rocks, and wall IX her up. But don't tell me where you put her, for she's forgotten now and should stay that way.' Return of the Enemy — Nestor's Revenge — And to himself, in a fashion similar to Wratha's short Canker's Moon-mistress and cynical eulogy: Forgotten, aye - and aJJ her curses with her! But do curses die as easily as women? Even vampire women, in the right circumstances? And even the Wamphyri, when their time is come? Somehow, Nestor doubted it. . . Gradually, achingly, Nestor came awake. But not to his soft bed and the comforts of some vampire girl's breasts and buttocks in Suckscar. And yet his first thought was this: My life as a Lord has made me soft! Which was a contradiction in itself, for as a Lord of the Wamphyri Nestor was hard as never before; both physically and mentally hard, with little or nothing of human emotion left in him, and certainly nothing of the frailty of human flesh. But even the metamorphic flesh of a vampire has its weaknesses, such as sunlight, silver, kneblasch, and the sharp and splintery point of a hardwood stake; and, of course, a certain disease - a destroyer of the flesh itself, that causes it to slough away in lifeless pieces -which men have named leprosy and vampires avoid as surely as sunlight! For where the latter may be mercifully swift, the former is tortuously slow, irrevocable and utterly merciless. The hundred year death ... Nestor came more surely awake, and at first was surprised by a discomfort so great it was pain. Then he remembered where he was; and the damp grit in the corner of his mouth, the small pebbles pressed into his face, and the earthy smell of a riverside cave confirmed it: his location and predicament both. 535 He broke fragile scabs in the corners of his eyes as he Wratha talk him into a massed raid upon them: himself, forced them painfully, shrinkingly open, ready for the the dog-Lord, Wratha and all their forces. If he had not bright and deadly dazzle which might await them even been so stubborn - if he'd told his colleagues his secret, now. But no, he was safe; his sleep had been a long one - showed them Sanctuary Rock and led them in the battle of exhaustion, recuperation, replenishment -from which to take it — things wouldn't have come to such a pass. the setting sun and his vampire nature had finally called But as it was ... him awake. .. . What of this Nathan - his Great Enemy, the master For outside, beyond the low, frowning mouth of his of the numbers vortex, his unknown brother — now? And refuge, the gurgling river was a leaden grey and showed what of the bitch Misha, who had betrayed Nestor in a nothing of reflected sparkle. It was the twilight before world largely forgotten? For those two were the real cause sundown, which in a few more hours would turn to of his current fix, and the hell of it was that even now he night... his time. didn't know the outcome of his plan to trap and dispose of He sat up - but too swiftly, abruptly - which caused him them: whether it had worked in whole or in part, or yet more pain. Indeed, it seemed there were several small whether it had been a total failure. hurts in his body unremembered from this morning, Only Nestor's lieutenant, Zahar Lichloathe, once Sucks-thrall, which only now made themselves apparent: a lump inside could tell him that. And Zahar was in Suckscar, if he lived at the knob of his left shoulder, where he'd broken his all! But however things had gone, from Nestor's current point collarbone in the crash; lower ribs which were bruised, of view they'd gone disastrously wrong! Yet on the other aching and possibly broken; massive bruising covering hand... perhaps it wasn't so terrible after all. For as he put all the left side of his body, hip and thigh. Ah, but that out tentative vampire probes into the evening all about, had been a tumble! and as he employed enhanced Wamphyri senses to As for his face and eyes: they were healing, and listen and smel] and feel the mental aether, nowhere could rapidly. And Nestor knew it was the swift metamorphic he detect the numbers vortex or even a trace of it. For the reconstruction or revitalization of damaged parts which first time in as long as Nestor could remember, his mind hurt him so. His vampire flesh had expelled those pellets seemed completely clear of it. As he gingerly fingered his of silver which the lepers in their colony had missed; his torn but mending face, brushed tiny pebbles and grit from cracked and broken bones were fusing even now, so that his hair and prepared to go out into the lengthening soon they'd be stronger than the original material; the shadows of twilight where the birds of the forest were ravaged flesh of his face was sealing itself with scar hushed as they settled for night, Nestor thought back on tissue which eventually he could keep or shed to suit the recent events leading to this present moment... himself. (Probably he would keep it, if it was not too ... After Glina had cursed him (a curse that echoed unsightly, as a reminder of the debt owed him by the even now in Nestor's memory like a weird invocation, Szgany Lidesci.) and one which seemed to be working at that!) and The Lidescis .. . the name was like bile in Nestor's following immediately upon her subsequent suicide: mouth. Perhaps it would have been better after all to let 536 537 Though he had resisted temptation until three-quarters And he had also known what he must do about it. . . of the way through sunup, eventually the lure of Back down in Suckscar, hearing Canker Canison singing Wratha's vampire body had sufficed to draw Nestor up to a pale, sunlit moon from some north-facing balcony in into her manse even as the water from Gorvi's wells was Mangemanse, Nestor had sought him out for his advice. drawn by her siphoneers. And despairing of what he had And the oneiromantist dog-Lord had read his dream for seen as a human failing and weakness, still he'd gone to him and looked into his future, but not without a warning: her. that the future is a devious thing. But . . . it had not been the same. For Wratha it may 'The danger lies not so much in reading what will be,' have been, but not for Nestor. For he'd felt his Canker had told him, 'but in trying to alter it. The future dominance and had known that Wratha loved him, or is no less inviolable than the past. What has been is fixed that her feelings for him were a vampire's equivalent of that way forever. And what will be . . . will be!' love. And the knowledge of her weakness in this respect Still Nestor had wanted to know: 'And for me?' For answer, had become his strength! Afterwards, when they had falling to all fours, Canker had tilted back his head and slept, then he'd dreamed again: of the numbers vortex, of howled his misery! Then, springing upright again, he had course, and the One who hid in its heart, his hated clutched Nestor to him; and in the next moment his growl brother, Nathan. But finally starting awake, Nestor had had been very deep and far too ominous as he said: known that this dream had been different from any other. 'Perhaps it would be best if you took me with you, my For even when he was fully conscious, something of it friend.' Took you with me?' had stayed with him, niggling there at the back of his To Sunside in the twilight, where you'll do your best to changeling mind - that maddening, meaningless swirl of scratch this itchy old scar of yours. For it seems to me mutating numbers! Oh, it was faint in the sighing of the you'll be staying there a while, whether you want to or fading sunlight on the mountains, yes, but it emanated not. And a day on Sunside is death, as well you know ...' from Sunside and Lidesci territory nevertheless. And it Then the dog-Lord had brightened. 'Yes, that's it! I'll go was real. No longer a memory but a fact; absent for so with you! For that's the way I saw it: that you were not long and only now returned, but actually returned ... alone.' Returned ... 'I never intended to be,' Nestor had answered, shaking The thought of that - of his Great Enemy, returned - had his head. 'But I'll not jeopardize you, for it isn't your made Nestor's vampire flesh tingle. And Misha, his stolen problem. No, I'll take Zahar along. And that way this love? Was she, too, out there even now, together with him? future you've seen won't be changed. Except . . . I don't Were they lovers again, plotting against Nestor anew as yet know what you saw.' once before they had plotted in an earlier existence? 'I saw trouble, fire, pain and torment,' Canker And he had 'known' that the answer to all of these answered. 'I saw brothers — twins and yet not twins — one inward-directed questions was yes! of them hurt, damaged, perhaps permanently, and the 538 539 other sent far, far away. Only don't ask me which brother And Misha, if she was with him? She would be stolen was which. And as for changing the future: don't trouble away into Starside, to be Nestor's thrall in Suck-scar. All yourself. For as I told you, it may not be changed. Nor of which had been explained to Zahar, so that Nestor need will it be denied.' only caution him: And Canker had stood there whining, perhaps even 'If aught befalls me, my enemy must not go free. No, crying in his way, as Nestor returned thoughtfully to for I can't bear the thought of that! If I'm destined for Suckscar ... hell, I want to know that he got there before me, or that he's following close behind. These are my instructions: Then, almost too soon, it had been the twilight before 'He is mine and you shall take the girl. If all goes well sundown, and the grey peaks of the barrier mountains had we head home at once. But if I come to grief my order is beckoned Nestor as never before. He had felt lured by this: drop the girl and take him! Do you understand?' them where they turned to blue ash under a hurtling moon Zahar had understood, and also Nestor's next and ice-chip stars; lured by the peaks ... and by the instruction: that his enemy was to be tossed alive into the numbers vortex both! For instead of fading as of old, now hell-lands Gate on Starside! the vortex had waxed in Nestor's head to a living power, Then they had mounted up, and Nestor had told Zahar: whirling like a dust-devil in his enhanced Wamphyri 'Now follow close behind and I'll take you to them.' And mind, so that he had been doubly sure that his Great he had. Up until which time, all had gone as planned. But Enemy was back. from then on . . . All had gone astray. And before the rest of the aerie was fully awake, Nestor Oddly enough, Nestor remembered very little of it, and Zahar had saddled manta-winged mounts and flown other than that he'd followed the numbers vortex to its to Sunside; so that by the time Canker had changed his source, and discovered his prey heading west for Sanctuary mind about changing the future and rushed up from Rock; the two of them together, of course. After that it Mangemanse to restrain Nestor - and before Wratha had should have been the very simplest thing: a Lord of the yawned three times, frowned and sent out a vampire Wamphyri and his lieutenant, both of them mounted upon probe to seek him out and discover the reason for his flyers, against a pair of Szgany lovers wandering in the absence from her bed - it was already too late. twilight like lost waifs? Resting a while in the barrier mountains, Nestor and He had seen them from on high and could not fail to Zahar had gazed down on Sunside. And by virtue of the note the travois which they hauled behind them, weighted numbers vortex, Nestor had known that his Great Enemy with their few worldly goods. And he'd known what that was down there even now. Except this time he could find travois signified: that they were recently wed, and were him, by following that trail of alien numbers which rushed even now returning from their nuptials. Well, what odds? faster and faster, ever more maddeningly through his head. Nathan had had Misha before, Nestor was sure, and it At long last he would track the maelstrom to its source made little or no difference now. But it infuriated him and destroy it - destroy him - forever! nevertheless. And worse, it distracted him. 540 541 He saw man and mate, but failed to see the other who The crash/ The whiplash as he was hurled from the was there, their possible salvation. That other who carried flyer's back. His body somersaulting, smashing against a shotgun, which Nestor remembered as being 'a weapon the bole of a great tree, falling through branches which out of another world'. snapped under his weight, down to the forest's floor. And Then, as the hunters descended through a thin mist the darkness ... under vibrating, membranous manta wings arched into air Then: traps, the pair on the ground had seen them! Leaving the Ministering hands? Kindness? Ointments and travois behind, they'd split up and scrambled in opposite bandages, to assist in the healing process which Nestor's directions. Acting on Nestor's instructions, Zahar had leech had already commenced. And brief bouts of gone after the girl while his master pursued Nathan. But consciousness. And the occasional wishful thought that in the milky swirl of a deepening mist, still Nestor had perhaps Wratha had found him crashed and brought him failed to appreciate the presence of a third Traveller. Until back to the last aerie. But she hadn't. - No, for the lepers had found him.' - Twin flashes of light, matched by a double-barrelled His hag-ridden, blundering, half-blind escape from blast of sound! By which time it had been too late. their colony in the predawn light, and the knowledge Nestor's flyer was hit in the face; indeed half of its face etched in acid on his vampire mind that he had been in had been blown away, and the wonder was that the beast their hands, in their care, and breathing their air for the had managed to stay aloft. But that hadn't been the end of greater part of a long Sunside night! it. There'd been more gunfire, this time directed at Nestor Lepers.' himself. Leprosy.' The agony of those tiny, poisonous silver pellets The Great Bane of the Wamphyri! chewing deep into his metamorphic flesh! Almost unseated, somehow Nestor had managed to hang on. And Nestor snapped out of it. . . and found himself stripped reeling sightless in the saddle, his face a raw red mess naked, scrubbing himself in the river, scrubbing the feel, and consciousness slipping as he fought to command his the smell, the taint and even the knowledge of leprosy out crippled flyer up, away, and back to Starside, again he'd his body, his brain, his very existence. Except the remembered Glina's curse and Canker's warning. knowledge was there forever, and he knew it. What had Following which he remembered very little: been could not be altered. A long low glide, and his inability to impress himself Shivering, he went to the riverbank and dressed on his mount's mind. The gradually declining beat of the himself in his soiled clothes, and thought: It is flyer's manta wings; its agonized mewling; the way it contagious, but not inevitable. Also, I'm aware of the tilted first to the left, then to the right, its balance upset danger, and so is my leech. by the silver shot in its tiny brain. Unable to find the Within him, he knew that his parasite was working to strength to climb, disorientated, dying, the beast had discover and destroy anything of leprosy — anything headed out over the Sunside forest... and crashed there. alien at all - which it might find in his body and blood. 542 543 But he knew, too, that it had already tasked itself to lowed trails old and new where they were available, just produce an antidote to the poison of the silver shot; also, so long as they pointed in roughly the right direction. that it worked hard to replace the tissues damaged by the And in the deepening night Nestor was in no great hurry, shotgun blast and his crash both. In short, he knew that for the night was his friend and he was Wamphyri and his leech was overburdened. inexhaustible ... But he must put it out of his mind. A man might live ... And hungry. with lepers for years and remain free of the taint, and he In a little while he knew his whereabouts: the woods had been with them for one night only. (What, with his some three miles south and one east of Settlement. Upon torn flesh, open and inviting of contagion? And them a time he'd played here as a child, and hunted here as a feeding him, touching him, breathing on him?) youth. The memory came and went, insubstantial as a Damn . . . it... to ... heJI! tendril of ground mist, evaporating in his mind. His Nestor gritted his teeth, shook his head furiously, gazed childhood and youth were forgotten in a moment, but north through bloodshot, blood-red eyes and glimpsed the instinctively, still he knew where he was. Four miles and first stars of night glittering over the barrier mountains. he'd be into the foothills. And all the long Sunside night And high over the last aerie, the Northstar like some spread before him, through which he'd climb the barrier frozen blue jewel, calling to him as once before it had mountains to safety long before the sun was up. called. Except he knew now that Wamphyri 'inexhaustibility' But the ice-chip stars were blurred, twin-imaged, and was a fable; his travails had taken it out of him; despite his damaged eyes filled with tears, of pain and his long sleep he was beginning to tire ... and he was still frustration, as he tried in vain to fix those celestial gems hungry. in their orbits. All to no avail. It was useless; the healing In a hundred years' time - ah, but it would have been could not be hastened but must take its own time; he must so easy! To find a point of elevation, spread his stretchy rely on his darker vampire senses to see him through the Wamphyri flesh into an airfoil, fly and glide home to woods and across the mountains. Starside. But Lord though he was, in that respect Nestor Well, and that was something which Nestor had done was still immature. He had progressed, yes, but not yet before, too, with nothing to rely upon but the damaged to that point. Not yet to the extent of that incredible skill mind and memory of a dull Szgany youth, and when all or art. Indeed, as of yet he'd not seen a one of the Lords he had known was what he wanted to be. And now that of Wrathstack in actual, physical, unassisted flight, he was? It should be easy. though Canker had sworn that they all could do it, if or So he set off north, and gradually his aches and pains when necessary. settled to a dull background throbbing, and his at first But flight! Just think of it: to launch oneself and drift cautious tread took on pace, rhythm and the easy flow of aloft on the night winds! Nestor inclined his head and the vampire to eat up the miles. glanced longingly at the star-shot sky - As before, the Northstar was his pharos; it guided him - And saw manta shapes gliding up there! along the shortest route, though naturally he fol- 544 545 At first his thoughts were chaotic: enemy, who sided with Wratha and the dog-Lord to What, a search-party? Had Zahar or Wratha organized make Wrathstack's upper half a fortress in its own lieutenants and thralls to come across the mountains and right, and leave the others to their fate. Get rid of him look for him? Well, Wratha perhaps ... but Zahar? It and Wratha would be that much weaker, and the seemed unlikely. Despite that Nestor had sworn he'd be brothers that much stronger. back, his man Zahar must see this as his chance for Yes, he'd been lucky. And his luck was holding. ascendancy. Just how he would manage it was hard to Someone - a Traveller, obviously, from his crashing, say: Zahar had no egg and he wasn't long a vampire stumbling, blundering flight - was heading his way. himself. But it was a chance, certainly. Flushed out by the Madmanse twins, sweet salty Wratha, then? sustenance was on its way, rushing straight into Nestor sent a probe skyward, and saw that it wasn't Nestor's waiting arms. Wratha. Indeed the riders on high were the last people he He melted into the cover of tree-cast shadows, breathed had wanted to see, and certainly they were the last he'd a vampire mist, let his dark Wamphyri senses drift out want to discover him here: the Killglance brothers, Wran from him to meet and explore whoever it was that fled in and Spiro! They and a small party of hunters were his direction. And there were two of them: a man and a circling overhead, gradually descending. But even as he woman. Sufficient for aJJ of his needs. watched, the descent became a swoop: like the plummet Nestor let them come, and now their approach was of hawks stooping to their prey. that much more cautious. Not because of him, no, for Nestor's vampire senses had been sharpened by the they had no knowledge of him. Because of the sounds presence of danger on high; now from the north-west, he from the deep forest at their backs: the hoarse, desperate heard the crashing of underbrush; even at this distance shouting of fearful men; shrill, feminine cries of terror; the hoarse panting of fleeing Szgany was plainly audible. and the coarse pitiless laughter of their pursuers and The brothers had found a party of Travellers, and very tormentors. But all from some distance away, and this shortly the night would turn to rack and ruin, fire and pair thought that they'd escaped it. So that now they blood. Nestor's heartbeat picked up and his own blood crept in the night like mice, and tried as best they surged at the thought of it. might to still the thudding of their hearts, to quiet the He had been lucky. If the marauders weren't so intent panting of their ragged breath. upon the hunt, they must surely have sensed his probe. But Nestor heard everything, and waited ... And he could be fairly sure how the Lords of Madmanse And eventually they came. would have dealt with him: not necessarily a quick death, Then- but one from which there'd be no returning. The sword, - He stepped out of his own mist and confronted the stake, the cleansing fire. them! The shock was so great that the woman - no, she Of course, for who would there be to witness it, and was only a girl - simply fainted away. As for the youth: who later to accuse? None but the brothers themselves, his jaw fell open and he lifted an arm and hand, perhaps and their thralls. And Nestor was without a doubt their defensively ... except his hand contained a crossbow! 546 547 Nestor leaned to one side as a bolt whirred too close to until they found her lover ... slumped close beside her at his ear, and he struck at the other's extended wrist with the bole of the same tree! Slumped, almost crumpled the flat of a hand as hard and as heavy as wood. The there, and bloody as a freshly slaughtered beast. youth's wrist broke but he made no sound, for Nestor's Then she turned her searing, accusing gaze on Nestor free fist had already crashed into his face. His jaw again, saw the look on his face and knew what it meant. disintegrated and his teeth collapsed inwards, driven into That he wanted her and would have her. Similarly, he the back of his throat by Nestor's thorny knuckles. knew what her look meant: that she would kill him if she Gagging, he flew backwards and slumped against the could or cause him to be killed, and never mind the bole of a tree. Nestor followed up and drove his right fist consequences. He knew she'd scream her lungs out if he into the other's chest, crushing his fluttering heart, gave her the chance, and also how easy it would be to nipping its pipes, tearing it from his body while still it squeeze a little harder and finish it. Except . . . he wanted palpitated in his hand. her conscious. Or conscious at first, at least. Thus it was done, and all so silently. From the darkness of the near-distant forest, the sounds And holding the still-shuddering corpse of his victim of Wran and Spiro's raiding party about their business upright against the tree, Nestor slaked his thirst and had settled down to a chorus of sobbing, pleading female satisfied his hunger there and then. voices, the occasional shriek of agony or infrequent burst Or one of his hungers, at least... of guttural laughter. Knowing what these sounds signified, that by now the Killglance brothers and their In a little while the girl stirred and uttered a low moan. lieutenants were enjoying the women they had captured, And when her eyes flickered open Nestor was there Nestor's vampire passions were inflamed and his blood kneeling beside her, looking into her face. Her mouth sang in his veins as he felt his own need growing by leaps flew open in what started as a scream but quickly gurgled and bounds. He would do the same, right here and now, into silence. For his hand was at her throat, tightening, immediately, but knew that if the girl cried out she would and the look on his deeply scarred, savagely lustful surely be heard. vampire face was a warning in itself: don't! If she cried out. . . Then she looked beyond him, up through the canopy of Coming slowly to his feet, but never for a moment the trees, to see clouds scudding against a backdrop of relaxing his grip on her throat, he looked down on her cold blue-glittering stars. She was seated with her back to gazing up at him. Despite that her face was grimy, the leaning bole of a tree, and she was naked to the waist streaked with tears, and bore the bruises and scratches of where her upper clothing had been torn from her in strips, her panic flight through the night forest, still she was like rind dangling from a ripe fruit. beautiful, or would be in the right circumstances. In that same moment she knew that this wasn't just a As he continued to straighten his legs and stand up, bad dream; she remembered where she was, who she'd Nestor released his rigid rod from his trousers and let it been with, and what had happened. Her eyes opened stroke upwards through the central indentation of her rib wide, glancing this way and that in the starlight, cage, then between her firm, quivering breasts. 548 549 devoured her life, incensed Nestor even further. Moaning Her beautiful breasts ... her shivering shoulders, the sweet agony of his relief - shuddering head to toe, gleaming like marble in the night ... her pulsing throat. crushing the girl's upper body to the tree - he reached The depth of her throat. But her face was turning blue climax and ejaculated in a series of long bursts. Then it from the pressure of his iron fingers. And gradually, as was over, and in a little while he began to shrink back she began to choke, so he released his grip on her into himself and withdraw ... windpipe. Instantly her mouth gaped open and she drew After that, Nestor would have skirted the hunting party massively on the night air. Nestor knew that when she out of Madmanse and continued his trek without delay, expelled that breath it would be in the form of a piercing but there was a matter of great importance which he must shriek, which was something he simply couldn't allow. see to first. His male victim was most certainly dead, and Ramming himself forward into her mouth, he reached the true death at that: Nestor had ruined his face and down to trap her hands where they flew to his vulnerable ripped out his heart! But the girl was whole. She'd been parts. And concentrating on his metamorphic flesh as it depleted, but her body was intact and quite incorruptible. surged into her throat, he filled her as so often he'd filled For as well as taking, Nestor had given far too much of the Lady Wratha; except Wratha was Wamphyri and had himself. In short she was undead, a vampire, and with wanted it, and could take it. copious amounts of Nestor's seed in her she could very In his awful ecstasy, Nestor's metamorphism was that well become Wamphyri. of a Lord full-fledged. He extended into his unknown Or she might have become Wamphyri... victim like lava in a volcanic, subterranean sump, filling Nestor took up the youth's crossbow, found a second every available space. Sex was his purpose, but his leech's bolt beneath the tiller, and discovered a third in a narrow need was sustenance - a direct flow into Nestor's own sheath sewn into the dead man's jacket along the seam of stream - to supplement the nutrition he'd had from the the forearm; both of which he sent plunging into the girl's young man. Within the girl's writhing body, Nestor's heart at point-blank range, pinning her to the tree. Now flesh put out small hooks to hold itself in position, and she would not wake up from her undead sleep but simply needle-like siphons to pierce her innermost veins and rot here, unless Travellers found her first and burned her. arteries, drawing off her life-force while yet it remained. Long before then, however, the sun would be up, when But it didn't remain for long. anything of the vampire left alive in her would likewise As her hands went limp in his, Nestor released them die. and reached for her breasts, and squeezed them as if to And without another moment's thought for her, or a force her juices - and his own - to flow that much faster. word said over her, Nestor set out north again and skirted Except the flow was already ebbing as she gave up the the continuing sounds of savage celebration where they unequal struggle. echoed in the depths of the violated forest. Once, through The knowledge that she was dying, that he had the trees, he saw the flickering yellow flames of a campfire dancing in a clearing, and several 551 550 was vulnerable and wanted no enemy coming to nodding grey ghost shapes which could only be the investigate his presence. But if it was Gorvi down there, silhouettes of flyers; but striding out and stronger now, he hunting on his own for once, and separate from the soon left all of that far behind . .. Killglance brothers - Without further incident, Nestor came at last to the - Perhaps there'd been a falling out between them. foothills and commenced climbing, and one-third of the Nestor hoped so. way through Sunside's three-day 'night' found himself Even as he looked down, a fire sprang into being in the almost up into the hard rock outcrops, scree-covered old town's centre where a house went up in flames. saddles, and sheer cliff faces of the barrier mountains Doubtless a celebration was in progress. So Twin Fords themselves. hadn't been deserted after all. Not tonight, at least. But Now the going was harder but Nestor was undeterred. tomorrow it would be, most certainly ... With something over forty hours to go before sunup, he would be up into the peaks, safely through the high With the first flush of a false dawn staining the southern passes, and down into the shadows of Starside before the horizon, Nestor made his way wearily through a high searing sunlight could discover and devour him. He slept pass to cross the dividing line between Sunside and once, briefly, in a cleft in the base of a cliff - and woke up Starside. An invisible demarcation, it was the halfway thinking that he'd overslept and the sun was already up! point where Sunside disappeared from view, even the But it wasn't. Though the evilly glittering Northstar horizon. And in the Stygian shadows of the Starside was hidden now by the wall of the mountains, the rest of peaks, at last he felt safe. the stars shone cold and bright as ever overhead, and the So he returned into Starside, and emerged from the long night was only half-way through. pass to gaze down on the barren boulder plains. In the Twice as he climbed he saw signs of Wamphyri north-east, way beyond the hell-lands Gate, the last aerie activity. On the first occasion, a handful of heavily of the Wamphyri was alive (or undead) even now; from burdened manta shapes pulsed wearily overhead on a here it was invisible, except perhaps as a series of faintly course for Starside. This would be the Killglance brothers; twinkling lights in the dusky-blue distance. As for the having slept off their orgy of blood-letting and red rape, glaring hemisphere Gate: that lay in the foothills around they'd be on their way back to Madmanse. the curve of the mountains, which kept it hidden from The second time it was a mist that drew Nestor's view. attention: a vampire mist, rolling like a soft, shallow Nestor found a flat-topped boulder and sat himself white lake through the once thronging thoroughfares in down. He was tired and would rest a while, perhaps even the deserted ruins of Twin Fords far below. It could be sleep. But first he must at least attempt to make contact. Gorvi the Guile down there (for he was a crafty mist- In Wrathstack, the Lords, Lady, and all their lieutenants maker), or the dog-Lord, even the Lady Wratha herself, and thralls would be making ready for the long day. but Nestor made no inquiry. Up here in the heights he Wratha would be drawing her bat-fur curtains in the higher towers and turrets and south-facing 553 552 windows of Wrathspire; Canker would be out on a And: Nestor! (This from a delighted Canker.) But Mangemanse balcony somewhere, singing a last sad song where are you? to the blind, uncaring moon; down in Suckscar, Zahar The barrier mountains, perhaps a miJe or two east of would be wondering what was become of his master. Twin Fords, but on our side of the range. An hour and a Those without duties would be taking to their beds, while haJf, maybe two hours, and Zahar will pick me up. I'll be the shift-workers and watchmen would be up and about, back in the last aerie before the peaks turn from grey to seeing to the maintenance and security of the five great gold! manses. But in one piece? Despite that Nestor's eyelids weighed as heavy as lead, Yes ... Well, almost. he stared into the north-east at that perhaps imaginary I'm coming, too! Canker yelped in his mind. twinkle of lights, projected his Wamphyri thoughts at a And: Nestor! (This from a concerned, even wrathful mental picture of Zahar in Suckscar - and was Wratha.) Are you hurt? immediately rewarded as his probe found not one but He let her wait a while, then replied: Nothing that three receptive targets! Zahar, Wratha, and Canker: all of won't mend. them at various windows in their various levels, all Damn you! What you've put us through. And all for gazing into the south-west and thinking of Nestor. ... for a woman! Zahar's emotions were mixed, his thoughts confused, as Ah, and so you have spied upon my mind! Nestor his mind met that of his master. He couldn't send without accused. But you are wrong, Wratha. No, it wasn't for a Nestor's aid but was his master's true thrall and received woman but revenge! I don't want the girl, just as long his thoughts well enough. And when Nestor's probe as he doesn't have her. touched him, it was as if Nestor himself stood there, He? Him? Who do you mean? saying: You, Zahar, come to me! That's my business. Or it was. Now ... it's finished. 'Nestor!' Zahar whispered. But Wratha, listen to me: I'll make it up to you. From The Lord Nestor, to you! Now come at once, to the now on, any time you want to raid on Lidesci territory - barrier mountains. And bring an extra flyer. you, me, and Canker - I'm with you. For you see, it 'But . .. you're back!' really doesn't matter now. Nothing matters now ... And didn't I say I would be? Now hurry, for I'm ready And indeed it was as if a mighty weight had been for the comforts of Suckscar. And Zahar ... lifted from his shoulders. 'Yes, Lord?' After a while she said: I shall expect to see you soon, My Great Enemy. Is he ... ? in Wrathspire. 'On his way to hell, Lord, aye!' Zahar was in command To which he answered: Expectations are fine, and of himself once more. 'Or perhaps he's there already. For sometimes they even come true. it has been a while now.' Then he lay on his back in a patch of crumbly, Good! Now get out here with that flyer, and I shall desiccated heather, and in a minute or two was asleep ... guide you to where I wait. 554 555 Nestor slept for well over an hour. He only woke up itself. It was daubed pink and yellow on the underbellies when he felt the presence of other minds searching for of Sunside's drifting clouds, and painted amethyst on the him and closing with his location. Then, using curving southern rim of the star-shot, blue-black Wamphyri mentalism to guide his rescuers in - issuing atmosphere. It was given voice in the startled songs of topographic directions and an occasional correction to mountain birds, and echoed in a soughing wind as their course - he watched them come gliding diagonally thermals commenced to rise and draw cold air out of the across the foothills and pulsing into the heights; until dark vault of Starside. they drew level with him, spied him in the rocky saddle They mounted up and launched into the dawn wind, set where he waited, and sought safe landing sites close by. their course east and a little to the north, to take them Zahar and a riderless flyer were first down, with Canker home to the last aerie. But in something less than an hour, following behind. as they glided down across the Starside foothills and When they were safely down and dismounted, Nestor passed low over the hell-lands Gate ... went to them. 'Well done,' he told Zahar cursorily, before . . . A diversion! turning to Canker. What?.' Nestor and the dog-Lord issued their mental The dog-Lord bayed like the great hound that he was, question-exclamations almost in unison, while Zahar said gathered Nestor up in his arms, and growled: 'But I have nothing but simply stared down in astonishment and worried over you!' His scarlet eyes with their yellow fascination at the glaring white dome of the Gate ... and at pupils narrowed as they inspected Nestor's facial ravages. the figure which even now stepped down from its crater 'Not without cause, it seems.' rim, to go stumbling and teetering out across the boulder Nestor held him off and shrugged. 'A few scars? They plain! are nothing. I may even wear them as a trophy. Aye, for A woman? Nestor hissed. But human? Here? it seems I've won, Canker. It seems I've won!' And And Canker, gawping: Some Traveller woman, do you sharply, to Zahar: think? Taken on Sunside in the night, in thrall to Gorvi or 'You're sure?' the KiJlglance brothers, and left to find her own way 'About your enemy?' Nestor's lieutenant snapped alert. home to the Jast aerie? But . .. would they really leave a 'I brought him awake in the moment before I tossed him creature as beautiful as this to the perils of beasts and into the Gate. Oh, he knew where he was going, all right mountain passes? It seems scarcely possible/ - to hell!' Hauling on their reins, they brought their flyers round 'Huh!' Canker growled, as Nestor relaxed and smiled a in a tight semicircle and commanded them to sideslip this grim smile. 'Well, perhaps one day you'll tell me what way and that, settling to the sterile boulder plain like flat this was all about! Meanwhile, what are we doing here? pebbles to the bottom of a pool. And glancing at Canker For if you'll take a look back there...' Their eyes turned as they landed, Nestor saw that the dog-Lord was in the direction of his pointing hand. transfixed, his long jaw hanging loose as his eyes soaked Behind them, rising up from the unseen valleys and up the sight of the girl from the Gate. forests in a haze of golden dust motes, dawn proclaimed 556 557 'A creature as beautiful as this,' Canker had said. And they approached; and Nestor had never heard so clear a indeed she was beautiful ... and her colours totally alien! threat in any voice! But from the dog-Lord? He couldn't Nestor couldn't say if he'd seen such colours before, or believe it. Yet Canker's muzzle dripped saliva, his fangs even if they'd existed . . . in a woman. But in a man? What were sharp as bone knives where the soft, shiny black of his Great Enemy, Nathan, gone now into another leather of his mouth was drawn back and wrinkled, and world? Hadn't his colours been much the same? And his eyes glared a savagery completely out of character - at hadn't he always dreamed of a place where they would least where Nestor was concerned. fit, where he would be accepted? Somehow Nestor knew 'What is it, my friend?' Nestor's own voice was as calm that he had. Maybe they were all the same in that far and hushed as ever; which was as well, for it brought the strange world, that alien hell, even as the Szgany were other to his senses. the same in Sunside. Or perhaps this was just some weird 'Eh?' Canker shook his head as if to clear it, glanced at and wonderful coincidence. Nestor and Zahar, and returned his gaze to the girl. She For the woman from the Gate was a statuesque, looked into the cores of his piercing animal eyes, shrank unheard-of silvery blonde, and her eyes were blue as the from him and hissed like a wild creature, spitting her sky's vault on a clear day! Her skin was pale, terror. But as Canker took a step towards her and loomed unblemished, perfect; likewise her features. Long-limbed, close, she knew his overwhelming power and submitted her flesh was firm beneath undergarments of sheer silk, to it. She stood up straight, arms by her sides, trembling which were clearly visible under the swirl and waft of a in all her limbs. Then her eyes rolled up and she would gown wispy as butterfly wings. Less than opaque, the have crumpled to the hard earth; except the dog-Lord garment floated as if fashioned of shimmery silver swept her up, but oh so gentJy, into his great arms! cobwebs! And turning to Nestor: 'Eh?' he said again. 'But isn't it She had seen them falling out of the sky, landing and obvious what - who - she is?' dismounting. Now she ran from them and a wailing cry, 'No.' Nestor shook his head, stared hard at the girl in like that of a frightened infant, came back to them. the other's arms. 'Not at all obvious. For I've never seen Canker immediately went to all fours and was after her anything like her.' in a series of leaps and bounds. But catching up with her, 'But I have!' Canker barked. 'Often, in my dreams! strangely . . . he held back! The dog-Lord and alien Didn't I describe her well enough? I know I did. Only woman faced each other; she put up hands formed into turn your eyes to the sky, Nestor, if you would know her claws, with sharp, scarlet nails, and snarled at him; he heavenly origin. Up there, the hurtling moon! For she is stood there upright, stalled and astonished, jaw lolling my silver moon-mistress!' open. Nestor glanced at the sky, the tumbling moon, then The tableau remained frozen until Nestor and Zahar stared his amaze at Canker. 'Your ...?' came on the scene. Then: 'Aye, at last!' The dog-Lord was triumphant. 'I called 'Keep back!' Canker growled, whirling on the pair as 558 559 her down with my moon music, and goddess that she is - of her own free will - she came through hell itself, to be by my side in Mangemanse!' PART FIVE Discovering Harry I Harry's Room Revisited Nathan Keogh was far from innumerate, not any longer, but he was illiterate. The Szgany of Sunside had been good at making signs, but not at writing. Indeed they had no writing as such. Which was why he frowned at the menu which Ben Trask had handed him just a moment ago and shook his head apologetically. Til have . .. whatever you're having,' he told his mentor-in-chief, simply. Yet the look which he gave the older man was anything but simple. If anything it was an accusation, but not in connection with ordering lunch in an Indian restaurant in London. Trask hadn't intended to embarrass his protege. 'Ah! I'm sorry.' He held up his hands a moment, then let them fall despondently. And smiling wryly he said, 'I wasn't thinking.' 'Yes, you were,' the other nodded. 'You were thinking how strange I am: untutored, often gauche - by your standards, at least - and rather primitive. Yet at the same time a potential superman, a fantastic weapon. And that's how you'd like to use me, as Tzonov would have used me before you: as a weapon!' 'But I wasn't —' Trask the human lie-detector started to deny it - and stopped. Looking into Nathan's eyes, even without looking into them, he knew that the other spoke the truth. He had been thinking it, if only for a 563 Trask knew there was a problem, too. Nathan hadn't moment. But not quite the way Nathan had believed. spoken about it as yet, but it was there. Trask could play 'Not like Tzonov would have used you, no,' he said. a guessing game with him, he supposed, and when he hit 'Oh?' the right question read the truth of Nathan's answer in 'If you were going to read my mind anyway, you his expression, but that wasn't Trask's way. Anyway, he might have at least followed through,' Trask told him. believed he already knew what Nathan's trouble was. 'It's like reading the first pages of a book, or a chapter 'You're homesick,' he said. 'And you're taking it out on out of the middle: you didn't get the whole story.' your friends.' 'And what is the whole story?' Trask had used a new word but its meaning was 'You wouJd make a fantastic weapon, yes,' Trask perfectly obvious. 'Oh?' Nathan answered. 'And wouldn't nodded. 'I was thinking that. And I would "use you", if you be . . . what, homesick? In a strange world, dressed in that's the way you choose to see it. Not for myself, strange clothes, eating strange food and putting your Nathan, but to save an entire world, or both of our trust - your entire life - in the hands of strangers? A worlds if it should come to that.' He sat back in his chair. world you always thought of as a sort of hell, and the 'Very well, you want to read my mind. I have no problem more you get to know about it, the more likely it seems with that. Go right ahead, and welcome to it. See if I'm you were right! A world where you own nothing except telling you the truth.' Trask's hypnotic implant was still in what's been given to you, where you don't know anything place, but he wasn't using it. He hadn't used it since except what you're told, and where you can't go anywhere Perchorsk five days ago. unless you're taken. This world of yours has so many Nathan looked into Trask's eyes a moment and felt wonders ... and so many horrors! Why, you people don't tempted to scan his mind again, however briefly. Then even understand its ailments yourselves! It astonishes me his face coloured up and he looked away. Trask thought that madness isn't rife, and I've only seen a small part of he knew what the red flush signified: shame. The espers it. Homesick? Yes, I am. I have a wife on Sunside ... didn't spy on each other and Nathan knew it. But he also maybe. But Sunside is a whole world away, and I don't knew that Trask had told him the truth, and that in any even know if she lived through the attack. By now, she case the way Trask would or would not use him had could be in thrall to some vampire Lord in Starside.' But nothing to do with his problem. he didn't say that the Lord would probably be his own Nathan's problem was not that he didn't trust Trask or brother, a vampire in his own right. his team of mindspies - he'd checked them all out and 'Homesick for a vampire world,' Trask said, trying hard knew that he could, with his life - but simply that things to understand. Oh, he understood the loneliness, but not weren't moving fast enough for him. It was his mounting the rest of it. Instead of feeling... well, alone, yes, but safe, frustration. The novelty had worn off and in just a few like a refugee, Nathan felt like an outcast. And despite the days he was heartily sick of what seemed to him an living nightmares which dwelled in Starside and called entirely sick world. All he wanted now - and right now - themselves Wamphyri, still he wanted to go home. was to get back to Sunside. But Trask had told him it just couldn't be. 564 565 enemies in Starside, so we have potential enemies in the 'I can't help reading you,' Nathan said, looking east. You know one of them, Nathan, and you discovered directly into Trask's eyes. 'Not when you're coming across his intentions: to infiltrate your world as an aggressor. so clear. Yes I still want to go home! Homesick? I But if he succeeds .. . your world is only the first. Next suppose so, but that's not all it is. I'm not sure what it comes our world, which he'll overthrow using whatever is, except that somehow I might have the answer. I resources he wins in Sunside/Starside. So you see it's as think it's in me: the answer to all of this, the final simple as that. We need to know about your world in destruction of the Wamphyri. A weapon? Yes, possibly, order to counter his aggression, if it should ever come to but in order to destroy the enemy you have to take your that.' weapons to him. You can't hide from him in alien Nathan nodded. 'I think I understand all of that. But worlds.' now you have to understand. One of the first things they That had been pretty eloquent, Trask thought, from showed me in your headquarters was film of your someone who just one short week ago didn't understand a history. It was very .. . condensed? Yes, but it was very word of English. He tried to think of something to say - graphic? - too. And I keep thinking about it. Your wars that wouldn't sound trite and was saved by the have been devastating! And one of the worst things approach of a small, waddling, gap-toothed waiter. 'Are about them is that you don't just fight them on your own you ready to order, sir?' and your enemy's territory but on - neutral? 'Onion bhaji starters for two,' Trask told him. 'And a - ground too. And you leave the scars of your battles main course of chicken biriani. Also for two. Oh, and behind. As your weapons got better, the scars they left two beers.' got bigger. Don't forget, Ben, that I've seen the result of They were in a place just off Oxford Street. It was a one of your weapons used on Starside. It was bad enough down-to-earth place, hardly haute cuisine, but Trask there, but if it had been Sunside ...' He shook his head. didn't eat high class, not if he could avoid it. It just 'Not one of ours,' Trask told him. Theirs.' wasn't his thing: collages in brightly coloured soup, 'Does it really matter?' raw vegetables and half-cooked fish didn't turn him on. Trask thought about it a moment. But there was only And he didn't think Nathan would respond to it either. one truth and he knew it. 'If Tzonov investigates, 'But you're doing so well,' he said. 'You've been with invades, tries to plunder your world, we'll do our us, what, four days? Just four days,' he nodded, 'and damnedest to stop him. Oh, we'll try to stop him here already you fit right in. And you're learning, Nathan. first, thwart his plans as best we can. But if we can't ... We're teaching you all we can ...' he's not the only one with a gateway into Sunside/ '... And learning from me?' Nathan was disarmingly Starside.' frank. Nathan's face was suddenly very pale, sad. 'So, despite Trask nodded. 'Yes, of course we are. How you feel all my arguments and everything you told me -that you about Sunside is how we feel about our world. And only wanted to help me - still you will take narrowing it down a little, it's how we feel about our different cultures, east and west. Just as you have 567 566 your weapons, and men who can use them, an army Keogh, yes, as Keenan Gormley had first known him, however small, into Sunside?' before the Necroscope developed his powers to their 'Against Tzonov - if it's necessary that we go against full. But Trask must be slipping: here Nathan had him - yes.' Trask wasn't going to lie; even if he did presented him with yet another opportunity to learn Nathan would know it sooner or later, and he wouldn't more about the Wamphyri, and he'd almost let it go. forgive him for it. 'You've seen film of our weapons of war, which make 'Then you are as mad as he is!' Lardis Lidesci's shotguns look like toys, and yet you 'Not mad, dedicated.' still think the Wamphyri can triumph?' 'And is Tzonov dedicated, too?' Outside the plate-glass window a tourist bus passed 'But to himself,' Trask nodded. 'To his own ideals. slowly in heavy midday traffic. 'Do you see. that ... While our dedication is to freedom.' vehicle?' Nathan indicated the bus. 'In Turgosheim I saw 'Your freedom. Not the freedom of the Travellers.' one of Vormulac's aerial warriors - a creature freshly 'The freedom of all men, Nathan. If this thing starts, waxed in his vats, twice the size of that vehicle, armoured and when it's all over, your world can still be yours. But like one of your tanks and weaponed tip-to-tail - go without your help it might not be. You might lose it to crashing into the gorge. It was a training flight and the Turkur Tzonov and others just like him.' warrior had ... design faults? But when this monster hit 'Possibly.' Nathan looked doubtful, worried. 'But on the the bottom, the force of the crash was such that it tore other hand I see a very different ... what, scenario? And I chunks of stone out of the turrets of a lesser manse. And wonder: have you even considered that Sunside/ Starside even the chunks were as big as that vehicle!' might end up belonging to the Wamphyri in its entirety?' Trask shrugged, but not carelessly. 'You've seen our Just for a moment, the expression on Nathan's face was tanks, then. And their firepower? Now tell me: do you so like his father's had used to be - innocent, bemused, really think a warrior creature could stand up to a and lonely, yet paradoxically cold, knowing, enigmatic - machine such as that?' that Trask actually saw Harry Keogh sitting there. But 'No.' Nathan shook his head. 'Not even the most only for a moment, for in the next his laughter was forced, ferocious of them, for even they are only flesh and harsh, even sardonic. Until he was through and quietly blood. I don't think so and I didn't say so. But now you said: tell me something: if you can't get me through this 'I tell you one more time: you, your people, Turkur Romanian Gate, how can you possibly hope to get a Tzonov - anyone of this world who would venture into tank through?' mine knowing so little about it - you are all mad! The Trask grinned, but again without malice, and said: Wamphyri will eat you. I mean they will simply - 'You haven't seen all of our films, then. Nathan, we've literally? — eat you!' He was still trying out new words. got tank-killing weapons that can be fired by single 'Yes, literally. And very definitely ...' soldiers as easily as you fire a crossbow! One good shot Again he reminded Trask of his father; his conviction can take out an entire tank. And as for a warrior: was that concentrated, his warning that clear. Harry 568 569 they'd just blow it in half! And these are weapons which The West had the power, the knowhow, the wealth which we can take through!' our democratic systems had created, while the USSR and 'But not me?' friends were bankrupt not only of ideologies but also of 'Not yet.' hard cash. That is to say, they were incapable of further 'Why not?' expansion or interference in the affairs of lesser states; Trask sighed. 'I thought I'd explained something of they were no longer a threat; they had nothing with which that in Perchorsk, and again on your first day at E- to bargain. They could only beg. Branch HQ. We haven't even seen the Romanian Gate 'If the boot had been on the other foot, doubtless they'd yet, Nathan! Oh, we know it's there ... your father used it have rolled over us. But it's as I've been telling you: here once, to enter into Starside. But so far he's the only in the West we believe in the freedom of all men. So we human being who ever did.' helped them out, and we've been doing so ever since. 'You did explain it to me, yes,' Nathan answered. 'The children of Romania had suffered especially 'Maybe I wasn't paying too much attention. There was a badly. So . . . we built a Refuge for them; I mean we, E- lot going on. Please tell me again.' Branch, with our government's blessing of course. And Their food arrived. While Trask talked, Nathan tried we built it over the mouth of the Romanian tributary, his starter course, found it delicious, ate with gusto. His using the force of the resurgent water to drive our beer was also good but he sipped cautiously; Trask had turbines. It was a place of safety, a hospital, a school -and warned him of its potency; Nathan wanted to keep a a trap, a filter, a dragnet! clear head. The water coming out of that underground river was all The Gate is up an underground river which empties channelled through a screening system which would into the Danube,' Trask began. 'Shortly after your father isolate any ... solids. It was our way of ensuring that we discovered it, Romania overthrew its government and weren't going to have any more "visitors" from your opened its borders. Communism was on the point of world, Nathan. For you see, that Romanian river had been collapse. Conditions in that country were dreadful! Many the source of vampirism in this world for as long as men of the people lived like animals, all as a result of political can remember. But from now on, nothing bigger than a corruption ...' He paused. 'Are you getting all of this?' small fish would ever get out into the Danube. 'Yes,' Nathan nodded. 'I hope you don't mind, but -' 'So what we had was this: two Gates, one under the '- You're matching my thoughts to my words?' • Urals in Perchorsk, and one buried deep underground in 'If it's permitted.' Romania. You know about Perchorsk through personal 'It is. I don't have anything to hide.' experience, and now you know about the other Gate. The 'Then go on.' Russians looked after the one, kept it secure, took Trask went on: precautions against any Wamphyri contamination which 'The Western World was asked to help. Not only in might come out of Starside. And we looked after the Romania but in all of the old USSR's satellite countries. place in Romania. The only difference was this: that 570 571 they had access to their Gate, while ours was beyond our manse, and automatically touched the golden sigil in his reach. ear. 'They're more devious, more devilish! They pretend 'So how did Harry Keogh, your father, reach it? Well -' civilization, sophistication? But that only makes them '- This much I know,' Nathan cut him off. And now he worse.' did the talking while Trask ate. 'It was in Tzonov's mind 'I know what you mean,' Trask nodded. 'In this world, in Perchorsk. Something my father could do, which some years ago, we had a man called Hitler. He was Tzonov feared. And he wondered if I had it, too. Also, it civilized, "sophisticated", too - as were his ideologies, his has been in the mind of almost all of your mentalists, your machines of destruction, and the genocide which he espers. Including you, Ben. Something called the Mobius would have turned loose on the majority of the human Continuum. My father used it as a means of . . . of going to race!' places.' 'What happened to him?' Trask paused with a forkful of food half-way to his 'We killed him, and his army. But his ideas ... are mouth, and said, 'He could use it to go almost anywhere taking a little longer. We are winning, though. In this in this universe! Certainly in this world. But Sunside/ world, anyway. And we can win in yours, too.' Starside is another universe expanding parallel to this one, 'Not if you can't reach it.' and Harry didn't know how to use the Mobius Continuum 'Give us a chance. Now that we know Turkur Tzonov's to bridge the gap. Mobius himself didn't know that. Only plans, or believe we do, we're working on it. We're one man did: your brother, called The Dweller in your working hard.' world. Harry Keogh told us that much when finally he 'Doing what?' returned to us. But about The Dweller himself ... we 'Before we built the Refuge, and while we were building really don't know very much - except that in the end both it, we tried to get up the river. Harry had done it in he and Harry were Wamphyri. And maybe The Dweller stages, making what he called "Mobius jumps" from still is.' point to point. Also, he had help from a dead friend or Yes, Nathan thought, and now I have another brother two, Romanian potholers who had tried it before him who is also Wamphyri, but the thought was entirely his and failed. So, we brought in some experts of our own own. While out loud: and equipped them with the best possible gear.' 'No.' He shook his head. The Dweller is no more. And 'Potholers?' my father's dead, too. I remember Lardis talking about it. Trask explained, and finished: 'Oh, yes. There are It was a weapon out of Perchorsk that killed them: "a people in this world who explore caves for pleasure! As breath of hell"! It also killed off the rest of the old for the people we used . . . it was strictly business.' Wamphyri, as they were at that time. But the new Nathan gave a grunt. 'Huh! In Sunside they do it to Wamphyri... they are different.' hide - and to live!' 'How, different?' 'Our people tried to reach the Gate much as your father 'They're clever.' Nathan thought of Maglore of Rune- had done,' Trask continued, 'by moving up the underground river in stages. Except they were 572 573 handicapped; they didn't have Harry's special talents, Again Trask's shrug. 'It's a combination of knowhow deadspeak and the Mobius Continuum; they only had and opportunity. That river is subject to flash floods. aqualungs, powerful lights, prop-driven towing torps ...' Even without them it's a tricky enough proposition, else Again he must pause to explain. For while Nathan had we'd have been in there long ago. But any sudden read the pictures in his mind, still the technology was increase in the pressure or the depth of the water ... would way beyond him. spell disaster! Four months from now it will be spring 'Since then,' Trask went on, 'there have been a good going on summer -' many developments. The design of exploratory And again he had to pause to explain the seasons. equipment has improved. But up until now we felt we no '- And our weather forecasting will be that much more longer needed it. After the Refuge had been built we felt reliable. As soon as we know it isn't going to rain, we'll safer - the whole world was safer! Nothing was going to send a team up. Then, depending on their report...' come out of that subterranean river without us knowing '... You'll send me?' about it and how to deal with it. Anything that got itself That's a promise. Meanwhile, we learn a little from caught up in the sumps under the Refuge was either you, and you learn a lot from us.' harmless or . . . or it was dead. Or soon would be. Our 'Four months,' Nathan said again, his voice very small. systems are at least as good as those in Perchorsk, if not 'And all that time I won't know what's going on back better ... home. I won't know what's happening. To Lardis, the 'So the Russians had their Gate closed off and we were Travellers, Misha - won't even know if she survived.' in control in Romania. We no longer had any Trask felt helpless. He shrugged again, sighed and said, requirement to reach the Gate itself; everything would be 'Son, I don't like saying this, but you'd better get used to fine as long as we, and the Opposition, were able to the idea: it will take as long as it takes. And I repeat, in guarantee that nothing was going to - escape? - into our between times you give us a little help, and we'll give you world and society ...' a lot. It has to be the easiest route. The other way means 'Except now something has escaped,' Nathan nodded. sullen silence, solitude and sheer boredom - for you. Oh, 'Me!' we'll still get you back to your own place eventually, if 'You are not what I meant.' that's at all possible, but you'll miss out on a lot of good 'I know. So what's next?' friends you could have made along the way.' 'I promised you we'd help you, and we will. But ... Nathan had finished with his food. Looking thoughtful, what's it been? Four days?' Trask shrugged, however he sat back and toyed with a small jade green clasp, ruefully. 'Well, I'm afraid you're going to have to put up turning it in his fingers. It caught Trask's eye. 'I've seen with your frustrations a little longer than that, Nathan. you playing with that before. A keepsake out of Sunside?' Maybe for as long as four months!' 'Four months?' Nathan made a conversion. 'Sixteen sunups? But if your equipment is that much better now, why delay it?' 574 575 Nathan shook his head. 'No, out of Perchorsk.' For a pausing to reflect upon his own words, he gave a rueful moment he looked wistful. 'It belonged to Siggi.' snort. 'Only a handful, yes, but they've devastated Sun- His words hit Trask like a slap in the face, but he kept side! Only Lardis Lidesci has the measure of them, but it hidden. This was something new, the first time for how long? I suppose he knows they'll get him in the Nathan had mentioned Siggi's name to anyone. 'Siggi end, and he'll pay for his defiance and the damage he's Dam, did you say?' Trask was alert now. He reached caused them in hell!' out and was handed the clasp. And as he examined it he Trask was eager for all of this. He knew that the men asked, 'Er, why did she give it to you?' who were debriefing Nathan probably had it on tape, but Nathan glanced away, shrugged. 'A keepsake, as you he hadn't had time to listen to it in detail. And anyway it said.' came better from Nathan himself. 'Wratha and these 'And does David Chung know about this . .. others: they've established themselves in the territories of keepsake?' the Old Wamphyri? But I thought that Harry Keogh and Nathan looked puzzled. 'Why should he?' The Dweller had destroyed all of the old aeries?' Trask nodded and smiled, however tightly. 'Well, he Nathan nodded. 'Destroyed them, yes. All except one. should, that's all ...' He gave the trinket back, and And that's where they live: in the last aerie of the Old finished the rest of his meal in silence. It could all be Wamphyri, called Karenstack upon a time.' perfectly innocent, of course, but on the other hand Trask snapped his fingers. 'Ah, yes! I remember! Harry Chung wasn't the only locator in the world. And as long let that one stand, because in the last battle Karen sided as Nathan persisted in carrying that clasp around with with him and The Dweller and his people.' him ... Nathan shrugged tiredly. The last battle? Not quite; ... Did Turkur Tzonov know where Nathan was -his there have been others since, and there will be more. But exact location - even now? But if that was the case, why I know what you mean. Anyway, you'd know more about hadn't he picked him up west of the Urals? Trask let it that than I do, for it was before I was born.' go for now and finished his meal... Trask knew even more than Nathan thought he did. They had talked pretty much in circles and Trask Looking back on it, he remembered Harry's debriefing: couldn't be sure if anything had been resolved. But he The Dweller had let Karenstack alone for his own hoped so. Finally he pushed his plate away and watched reasons, but his father the Necroscope had a different Nathan drain the dregs of his beer. Then he said: 'You reason entirely. The Lady Karen was Wamphyri, as was were telling me about the new Wamphyri, out of The Dweller. If Harry could find a cure for her, he might Turgosheim?' eventually free his son from the curse of vampirism. He'd Nathan looked at him. Turgosheim lies in the east, tried it; it didn't work; Karen died. And The Dweller had beyond the Great Red Waste. They live there now, but known what Harry had done. Then, because he feared very soon they'll move west; and there are a great many that his father might try a similar 'cure' on him, he took of them. The Lady Wratha and the others who have away his metaphysical powers and already fled west, they're only a handful ...' Then, 576 577 returned him to his own world. And that had been the But I think you'll discover that ours is a worthy cause. In beginning of the end for Harry Keogh. the long ago, Sir Keenan Gormley had just as much Nathan read all of this in his mind. 'The Dweller was trouble recruiting your father. But it was worth it in the that powerful?' end.' Standing up to take out his wallet, Trask answered, Nathan looked at him. To you, maybe. But what about 'Yes, he was. He knew stuff his father couldn't even Harry? Was it worth it to him?' begin to understand. How to get from here to Sunside/ Trask remembered the Necroscope as he had last seen Starside, for example, without using a Gate.' He paid for him and couldn't repress a shudder, however slight. But their meal. the fact of it was, he knew that Harry wouldn't have had 'A powerful... weapon?' They headed for the exit. it any other way. And so he answered: 'I think it was, 'I won't lie to you,' Trask answered. 'You, too, are a yes. Anyway, that's the way it was and no one can change son of Harry Keogh. It's possible you have the same it now.' kind of potential. We had hoped to give you the clues to 'Fate?' Nathan was quiet, thoughtful. 'Destiny?' open it up. We still have hopes that you'll join us, see 'Something like that. Your father had a saying: "What this thing through with us against Tzonov, maybe even will be, has been". And we have another: "Like father, stay with us and help us to build a better world here. I like son".' mean, when all of this is over.' Nathan thought about that last, thought about himself 'Misha is in Sunside. And that's where I belong, too.' and about Nestor, and said nothing. There was nothing to Passing out into the noisy street, Trask's look was say, for Trask's maxim held true on both counts ... intent, urgent as he turned to Nathan and said: Then make Sunside safe for her, for yourself, for all of the Back at HQ Trask had a word with David Chung, and Szgany! And at the same time make this world safe, Chung broke into Nathan's session with a maths instructor too.' Then, seeing the other's reticence, his uncertainty, to ask him about Siggi Dam's clasp. The session came to he turned away and hailed a taxi. Now he must leave it to a halt as Chung examined the clasp and felt for its aura. Nathan to make up his own mind. Strange, because there wasn't one. He asked Nathan if he But in the taxi on the way back to E-Branch HQ, could borrow the trinket; he would return it undamaged, Nathan told him: 'Very well, Ben, I'll give it a try. Turn of course; it could be that the clasp was a sort of locating me into a weapon if you can. But I'll warn you now: device and dangerous as such. there will have to be a very good reason before I'll let Mystified, Nathan let him take it and returned to his you use me against ordinary people. Against the basic maths lesson. Ten minutes later Chung burst into Wamphyri, that is something else. But not against Trask's office without knocking, to tell him: 'Ben, this is ordinary people.' weird!' He tossed the clasp onto Trask's desk. 'You were Trask sighed his relief, nodded and answered: 'Judge right to put me onto it. First, this piece is entirely free of us as you find us, Nathan. And if we don't measure up, psychic probes; it's not being used to locate you can always wave us farewell as you enter the Gate. 578 579 ajar just as Chung had left it. Trask threw it open and Nathan. Next: I tried using it to locate Siggi Dam. Now, I both men looked out. know she's good and has this psychic mind-smog. But Half-way down the corridor, lan Goodly and a group with a locator mind-smog works two ways. If I wasn't of espers had gathered in a huddle. They were crowded able to find her, still I'd find the smog! Except I can't. round a door to one of the rooms, looking in. Others were She isn't there.' running to join them. Trask glanced at Chung, and 'What?' Trask had been busy with paperwork and his queried: 'Harry's room? I had the name-plate taken down. mind was only just beginning to focus on what Chung When Nathan starts reading . . . it might have proved a was saying. 'She isn't where?' distraction.' 'But that's what I'm trying to tell you.' Chung threw But as Trask and Chung started down the corridor, the his arms wide. 'She isn't anywhere! It's as if . . . it's like espers at the door of Harry's room backed off, then Jazz Simmons all over again. I mean, Siggi Dam is one seemed almost thrown back by some force from within. of two things: either dead or disappeared. And ... you And in the next moment the corridor was filled with a know what I'm thinking? Ben, this thing feels just like white light that flooded out of the room. Jazz, and like Harry. That kind of disappeared!' The precog Goodly came reeling, rubbing at his eyes 'What!?' Now Trask was all of a hundred per cent as the light faded to a hazy white glow. Trask grabbed with him. 'Disappeared into the Perchorsk Gate? Is that him by the arm, said: 'lan, what the hell ...?' But Goodly what you're saying?' He got to his feet, came round the was still too staggered to answer. desk. Next down the corridor was Nathan's maths teacher. Chung picked up the clasp. That's how it feels, yes. Not an esper or member of E-Branch, he'd been vetted Not that she's dead - though she could be; I haven't and sworn to the Official Secrets Act before they had let enough experience of her to be sure - but rather that him in. A small man of about thirty, thirty-five, with she's .. . gone!' receding mousy hair and wearing heavy, thick-lensed Trask found himself wondering about Nathan and spectacles, he was white-faced and panting. Trask Siggi, about what else had passed between them other grabbed him and said, 'What is it?' than her clasp. 'After the Chinese gentleman interrupted the lesson,' And remembering what he knew about Turkur Tzonov's the man began to answer, 'we couldn't settle down again. psychological profile, he couldn't help but wonder how I . . . I went to get coffee, and Nathan took the the telepath would repay that sort of treachery. opportunity to stretch his legs. He said there was Taking Chung's arm, he said: 'David, not a word of something he wanted to see in one of the rooms.' this to Nathan - not yet - but it could be our ace card. Trask went to brush past him but lan Goodly, back in We have to be careful how we play it, that's all.' control of himself, got in his way. 'Ben, there was no They were still like that, facing each other - wondering warning,' he gasped. 'Suddenly, I knew something was what had happened, what was happening even now, in going to happen, and where it would happen. I was in Perchorsk - when suddenly a babble of excited voices reached them from the corridor. The door stood 581 580 my office but headed straight for Harry's room. That's The figure was falling, tumbling in space and time Nathan in there at the computer console.' towards some indeterminate destiny . . . or origin? That The soft white light had vanished now. Trask and last was Trask's thought, though where it had come Chung ran down the corridor, avoiding espers where they from he couldn't say. Perhaps it was his talent, defining stumbled about or leaned against the walls rubbing at their the 'truth' of what he witnessed. eyes. But as the two men reached Harry's room, they The cadaverous Goodly had joined them in Harry's skidded to a halt and cautiously looked in. Beyond the room; he stood between and behind Trask and Chung, open door, Nathan was seated at the computer. Whey- touching their arms. And: 'Now!' he husked. faced, open-mouthed, he looked up, saw them, indicated The falling, rotating figure grew smaller, 'receding' as that they should enter. But Trask and Chung were looking the coloured threads hit the screen that much faster. It beyond him, at the computer screen itself. And they both became a mote, a speck, finally disappeared. But where it knew that they'd seen this before. had been: The screen was unnaturally brilliant; it was the source . . . A bright yellow bomb-burst! A sunburst of golden of the soft white glow, which still surrounded the entire light, expanding silently, hugely, awesomely! And not console. But the pastel-coloured moving pictures on the only inwards but outwards, too, as if to break free of the screen were brilliant, too: sharp-imaged computer very computer screen! An amazing three-dimensional graphics, which told a story out of the past. effect, so that the four observers - Nathan, Trask, Chung Trask and Chung said nothing; stunned, they merely and Goodly - gasped and felt the urge to duck, turn their watched ... and remembered. faces away. But they didn't, because they were Remembered a squally February night some sixteen fascinated and must know. years ago, when every available esper had felt the 'call' to And it was exactly the same as before, and yet more E-Branch HQ, and had gathered here to witness the death than before: of the Necroscope Harry Keogh, taking place in another Those myriad golden splinters speeding outwards from world, another time, even another dimension. It had the sunburst, angling this way and that, sentient, seeking, happened in the Ops room, and now it was duplicated on disappearing into as many unknown places. Those - the screen in these jerky, angular but accurate computer pieces- o/ the Necroscope Harry Keogh? All that remained of graphics: him . . . or of his metaphysical mind? And what of the dart A figure, human, male, in the shape of a cross, tumbling which had escaped into this world? Into our world? slowly, end over end, down a tunnel of thin neon bars or The screen held the answer. ribbons of blue, green, and red light; motion simulated by Suddenly it wiped itself clean, and in the next moment a breaks in the ribbons - as if each streamer were a series of new scene leapt vividly into view: of a building - or the dashes expanding towards the viewer, like multicoloured top floor of one - shown in plan, with rooms and ack-ack fire closing on an airplane - and each dash laboratories all clearly delineated. A very familiar blinking out of existence as it 'touched' the surface of the layout, and so it should be. Trask and his two most screen from within, giving the impression of falling. senior agents recognized it at once: 583 582 Nathan looked up and his face was paler than ever. 'A The plan shown on the screen was E-Branch HQ! message? From my father? But... what was it?' And there was the golden dart: materializing in the No one could answer him. But in Trask's mind it Ops room, lancing out into the corridor, speeding in a seemed he heard Mrs Wills again, her voice telling him series of rapidly mobile stops and starts, as if searching, something which her dead husband had told her: until finally it paused in front of a certain room. "Arry's room? Well yer'd best look after it, Meg, me love. And that certain room was this one. Harry's room! I mean, yer never knows when he'JJ be needin' ter use it The golden dart passed inside, became motionless, again, now does yer .. .?' shrank to a point of light and blinked out. And even as Trask and the others watched, the screen cleared itself off and immediately filled up again - with numbers! In the astonished silence Nathan's gasp was clearly audible as he leaned forward in his swivel chair, until his face was only fifteen inches away from the screen. Where the other observers were concerned, this largely obscured the view. But they saw enough to know that this wasn't their scene. And so did Nathan's maths instructor who had joined them from the corridor. 'Now what on earth ... ?' The others heard his gasped query but didn't look up. And for ten, twenty seconds the mathematical symbols and figures flowed and swirled in a hypnotic, sentient-seeming manner, forming rapidly mutating calculi apparently at random on the screen. Then, abruptly, they dispersed and left the screen blank. And the computer switched itself off . . . Trask picked up a loose electrical lead in numb fingers and looked at it. The set hadn't been plugged in. The others saw the lead in his hand and understood the expression on his face. It must be pretty much like the expression on their own faces. Chung spoke first. 'And that ... that splinter, dart, whatever it was, has been waiting here ever since?' 'But for what?' Trask's voice was hoarse. 'For this,' Goodly answered. 'Waiting for Nathan. To pass on its message. Harry's message.' Trask knew that he was right. 584 Continuum. For to know quite definitely that Harry Keogh had been here, worked here, been one of them, II was all the spur Nathan had needed. If Trask and his parapsychological organization had been good enough Nathan's Conversion for Harry, then they were good enough for him. From now on - for the time being, at least - he would play it Trask's way: a game of give and take. Right now it was Nathan's turn to give, and no holding back. But on certain matters ... Nathan had taken vows and there The occurrences in Harry's room had been almost would always be things he could never tell. Or if he did, sufficient in themselves to finally hook Nathan and tie it wouldn't hurt to obscure the facts a little ... him in with his new friends. As to his previous reticence: it hadn't been so much that he'd doubted their friendship Since bringing Nathan to London, Trask had cleared or even their motives, but mainly that he'd seen himself as most of his more mundane workload; that is, if anything being used. Now, however, he was beginning to see how of the Head of E-Branch's work could ever be thought of he could use them: their superior knowledge of maths as 'mundane'. Now he could afford to apply himself more and science in general. For what he'd seen on the diligently to Nathan's case, and the rest of the day would computer screen - that final sequence of rapidly mutating be spent hearing out the story of his life and adventures formulae - was nothing less than what he'd been seeing in on Sunside. his own mind for as long as he could remember: the Because Nathan had decided to make Harry's room his seemingly unfathomable numbers vortex as recreated by own, that was where the session took place. Chung, and a machine or some incredibly tenacious revenant of his Trask, too, had heard something of the story from Nathan father. himself, or read of it in the first debrief reports, but now And if the vortex (the maths controlling this so-called they wanted a far more detailed account. Now, too, Nathan Mobius Continuum?) had been real and worked for was much less reluctant as first he outlined, then filled in a Harry Keogh, Necroscope, then given the resources of history of the life he'd lived on Sunside, and in this computer-geared world in which Nathan was stranded, Turgosheim's dark and hag-ridden Starside. For in fact it he might also be able to make it work for him. And not was something he was getting used to: this, constant only in this world, but in Sunside, too. retelling of his story. First to the brown and spindly So that now, and as opposed to the selfless motivations Thyre, supposed 'nomads' of Sunside's furnace deserts; of Trask and E-Branch, Nathan's own motives were then to Maglore of the Wamphyri in Rune-manse; and mainly selfish: since the only way home was to assist his again to Lardis Lidesci during Nathan's brief return and new friends, he would assist them all he could, and in the sojourn with his own people. process attempt to discover his father's greatest secret: the But this time was different: Nathan had been given control of the metaphysical Mobius sketch pads, pens and coloured felt-tips. And as he 586 587 talked so he would pause every now and then to draw before. And its people began to live and breathe as maps of the regions he named. So that now for the first Nestor's life was recorded and his world revealed its time, Sunside/Starside was delineated and took on shape secrets . . . Or some of them. and substance here in an alien world. The story was much as he'd told it to Maglore that time Zek Foener had been brought in on the session: Zek, in Turgosheim, when the mage and mentalist had taken Trask, Chung and Goodly, and Nathan of course. Touching him into his manse unchanged, unvampirized, a man oh so gently upon their minds, he knew their excitement among monsters. Except this time it included his stay in and was filled with his own mixed emotions by the Runemanse, and his escape on the back of Karz Biteri, a knowledge that these people had actually known and man changed by Maglore's metamorphism to a leathery- worked with his father. Indeed, Zek Foener had been the skinned flyer, but still a man for all that. He told it all: of last person to talk to Harry before he'd left -or been his flight back into Sunside, how Karz had left him there chased - into Starside. Nathan still had to uncover the full in the foothills and flown off into the sun on his own, to story of that, and was spurred by anticipation. end his misery; how Lardis Lidesci's watchmen had seen But in fact there were other maps of the vampire Nathan land, recognized him and took him to their leader, world: Zek herself had long ago drawn several crude and how Lardis had reunited him with his mother, Nana sketches, mainly as an aide-memoire, which she had Kiklu, and the sweetheart of his childhood dreams, Misha brought with her out of her Greek island home to give to Zanesti. Trask. But Zek couldn't possibly have known the place Finally, he told of a Lord of the Wamphyri and his as well as Nathan: its rivers, forests and deserts, its lieutenant, who came in the first hours of darkness to lowland swamps and high mountain passes, the Great snatch him from his rediscovered love and dispose of him Red Waste beyond the eastern extremes of the barrier in the white-glaring maw of the hell-lands Gate on range; and beyond that, sombre and sinister Turgosheim Starside. Of the rest: well, they already knew that. His itself. Nathan even mapped a star-chart, showing imprisonment in Perchorsk, his escape, their own part in Sunside/Starside's principal blue glittering ice-chip stars the story. as viewed overhead from Settlement in the middle hours As for the things he didn't tell or at best obscured: He told of the long Sunside night. As for Szgany townships: in of his travels with the Thyre from west to east across the Zek's time there had been no towns. Just the Travellers furnace deserts, but left out their intelligence, their themselves, ever on the run from the Old Wamphyri telepathy, their subterranean society and civilization. For under Shaithis and the rest of the vampire Lords. these were things which he'd sworn never to reveal to any So in the course of telling his story, Nathan drew his man. He told of Maglore and Runemanse but made no maps - which matched up, however loosely, with Zek's - mention of the seer-Lord's beautiful human thrall, Orlea. until under the fascinated gaze of Trask and his His time with Orlea was for him alone. He spoke of colleagues, Sunside/Starside became real as never Settlement, but left out details of Sanctuary Rock; for the rock was the last refuge of the Szgany Lidesci. And with regard to hjs 588 589 escape from Perchorsk: during an 'interrogation' by Siggi But Trask found that he couldn't ask his question, and so covered by saying: 'We ... think she's in trouble?' Dam, he had 'stolen' her key to his cell. It was as simple as that. But of the four who heard his story to the end, Nathan had been looking tired, but came awake in a two at least knew that this last was a lie, albeit a white moment. 'Siggi? In trouble?' one. Chung quickly explained, and Nathan answered: 'This Just looking at Ben Trask, it was easy to forget - as Michael Simmons, Jazz? He must be the hell-lander - Nathan had forgotten - his talent: the fact that you I'm sorry, I mean the agent - that Lardis always talked couldn't lie to him, for Trask would know it at once. about. Michael "Jazz" Simmons.' He paused to look at Zek And as for Zek Foener: the fact that Nathan had Foener, whose sad eyes were full of memories, until she conjured his own esoteric form of mind-smog, the glanced away. 'Lardis was fond of Jazz. Why, he even numbers vortex, to obscure those several vague areas in named his son after him: Jason Lidesci! I would have his story, had been evidence enough of his deception. liked to have met him. And now you tell me you think But as for the degree of that deception ... Zek was as that Siggi... ?' wise as she was beautiful; she knew that there are things 'It's the same thing exactly,' Chung told him, quietly. we would all conceal, not necessarily out of shame but 'We have Siggi's clasp, but ... she isn't on the other end also trust. And so she, too, trusted. of it.' Then there were the maps. Nathan had been as 'One of two things,' Trask spoke up. 'Siggi could be accurate as knowledge and memory allowed with regard dead, or she's gone through the Perchorsk Gate.' to the barrier mountains, the great pass, fertile margins, Nathan shook his head. The Gate? Not after what I swamps, burning deserts, Starside, the hell-lands Gate, told her about the other side! What woman would the fallen Wamphyri stacks and Karenstack itself, which willingly . . . go ...' He let his question taper off unspoken. was the name of the last aerie as he had always known 'We, er —' Trask stumbled over his words, then let it; but again he'd omitted the places of the Thyre, the them go in a rush. '- We don't think she went willingly, location of Sanctuary Rock, and several major Traveller Nathan.' trails through the deep woods. If the time should ever Their guest looked from face to face, frowning, his come when men of E-Branch or in the Branch's employ flush gradually receding as Trask's meaning got through to passed through into his world, and if they should ever him. 'You mean, Turkur Tzonov might have sent her fall into the hands of the Wamphyri ... Nathan would not through? As some kind of punishment?' want Them to know these things. Trask looked right into his eyes. 'Possibly. It all Finally he was done, by his reckoning, but in Trask's depends on what he was punishing her for.' eyes he hadn't told enough. And despite that it was late 'Ben's right,' Zek cut in. 'Nathan, the Wamphyri aren't in the day, Trask pressed him: 'Nathan, about your the only ones who punish people. It was a different man escape from Perchorsk. And about... Siggi Dam.' who sent me through that time, but he was just as 'Yes?' And he couldn't keep the colour from creeping into his pale face. 590 591 bad as Tzonov. I suppose I was lucky: the Lady Karen Tzonov found us together; he struck me and dragged her found me, and she seemed to like me in much the same out of there; I found the key after she had gone. Also her way as this Maglore liked you.' clasp. But the key wasn't a mistake. She hadn't lost it. I'm At the mention of Maglore's name, Nathan touched the sure that she left it for me . . . " He looked up and his eyes golden sigil in his left ear. Just a touch as he brushed his were harder now, likewise the edge to his voice. 'You hair back into place. David Chung noticed the instinctive people - E-Branch on the one hand, Tzonov and his reaction but it made no impression on him; Nathan hadn't people on the other - are like two rival Szgany tribes. But told them that Maglore had given him the earring. Not you are all people, human. Or I thought you were. What that he'd been hiding the fact, but to him it had seemed he has done, if he has done it...' unimportant. Trask said, 'It changes things, doesn't it?' Nathan nodded. But the earring was one thing and Siggi Dam's clasp - 'If it's true, yes. Finally I will know -I mean, I'll be sure - and her inexplicable absence, which it had revealed -was that I'm in the right camp, on the right side.' another. Perhaps it was time Nathan told the whole truth Trask nodded. 'Well, you are. But we still might have about his brief relationship with Siggi. He made to do so, some difficulty proving it. On the other hand, there just opened his mouth to speak ... but Zek was here. Nathan might be a way to discover what's happened to Siggi. If looked at her and it was her turn to blush. Except she that's the proof you need - and if you're the man I think blushed for him, for she had her own suspicions. Being you are - then it's all up to you.' Zek, however, she offered Nathan an out: Nathan looked at him. 'Up to me? To find out what 'Tzonov and others like him will use any method to happened to Siggi?' obtain information, make people tell them what they want Trask nodded. The last time we had this problem, with to know. Torture isn't the only way. Don't feel that you Jazz Simmons, we asked your father to help us out. He can't talk on my account, Nathan. But if you'd like me to had the necessary ... skills? He was the Necro-scope. But leave ...' She made to stand up. in everything that you've told us so far, there's an all- Nathan reached out quickly and took her hand, drawing important thing which you haven't mentioned. Nathan, her down again. 'It wasn't like that.' He shook his head. when you spoke to me telepathically in my sleep, in 'Or maybe it was, but it didn't work out that way.' Perchorsk, I got the impression that you knew what lan Goodly saw it coming and said, 'Nathan, you don't Harry Keogh could do, where all of his powers sprang have to tell us anything about that. Well, just one thing. from. But there's only one way you could know, and Did you actually steal the key to your cell, or did she give that's if you can do it too. Do you know what I'm talking it to you? If she gave it to you, then we can probably about?' reckon that Tzonov has sent her through the Gate.' Again their eyes met, and after a long pause Nathan Nathan nodded, lowered his head. 'She gave it to me. nodded. 'Yes. And I can do it. I can talk to the Great Majority, to the teeming dead in their graves. Rather, I 592 593 couJd do it . . . if only they would talk back to me. But Trask wasted no time but ordered up two Branch cars, they won't. Not in my world, anyway.' and his party was driven at once to a crematorium, a Seated around him, the others sighed in unison. And Garden of Repose in Kensington. It was a chilly evening Zek said: 'I knew it! Your mind's the same as Harry's. Or and already dark when they got there, but the gates were it comes so close I could scarcely tell the difference. Not open. This was a place which was never closed to as cold as his, no, but the patterns are all the same.' mourners. Trask led the group to Sir Keenan Gormley's Trask nodded. 'That's what I felt the first time I saw tiny plot: a granite slab two feet square and some nine you, Nathan: there was no doubt in my mind but that you inches high, with a stainless steel plaque which carried were Harry's son, and that you'd been modelled on him. his dates and an epitaph reading: And when you spoke to me telepathically ... well, while you're very much alive, still I felt that this was what it Much loved and missed, must be like, talking to someone who was dead.' but gone now into a better place. Goodly said nothing but merely gave a small shudder, Requiescat in Pace. which Trask sensed as a trembling in his elbow where the precog sat beside him. Glancing at Goodly, he said: 'His family,' Trask explained. 'If it had been the 'Well?' Branch ... well, it could be we'd have done something 'And so it starts,' Goodly answered, looking more different. Something esoteric, in keeping with his life. cadaverous than ever. 'My God, but it's gathering now, Maybe this is for the best. At least it doesn't attract Ben!' attention. At least he can rest in peace. His ashes were 'What is?' scattered here, but this is his place. He is here. This is 'All of this. Why, the future is shifting even now. where Harry Keogh spoke to him.' We're not changing it, for what will be will be. But it When the inscription was read out to him and the last knows ...' line translated, Nathan shook his head. They don't, you And Chung said: The future is . . . sentient?' know. For they're restless, most of them. They think, 'When it comes to protecting itself, yes,' Goodly remember, talk a lot. To each other. But it's a lonely answered. 'You'd think so, anyway.' place there in the dark, and it's certainly not a better one. 'You should never try to read it.' Nathan shook his And they miss much more than they're missed.' head. But as the last sentence fell from his lips, so he reeled And Zek agreed with him: 'For it's a devious thing.' and Trask caught his arm to steady him. 'Nathan?' For a moment they were all silent, until Trask cleared For a moment he didn't answer, because a gonging his throat and said, 'I know someone - a dead someone - shout was still ringing in his mind: who will speak to you, Nathan. At least I think he will. HARRY.'.'! And after that... maybe the rest of them will follow suit.' And it had been so forceful, so brimming with life, that for a moment he looked to see whose mouth had 594 595 issued it. Around him the espers stood silent, Ahhh! Gormley's sigh. But little use for such skills astonished. They had seen his jaw fall open, the here. You see, I was a spotter; I knew when I stood close shocked expression on his face. But in the next moment to exceptionally talented people. Indeed, I was the one he knew, and shook off Trask's hand as he went to one who recruited your father, Harry Keogh, into E-Branch. knee in the gravel beside the granite slab. And with his There had been certain great injustices, and only he could trembling hand resting upon the plaque, using his dead- put things right. speak, he said: 'I know,' Nathan told him, 'for they - your people in the No, not Harry but Nathan. My name is Nath - Branch - have told me. And now there are more It's Harry! The other cut him off. Why, I'd know you injustices, and I have been recruited in my turn ...' anywhere! Your warmth, your Voice', your ... presence! So their conversation went, with Trask and the others Don't try to foo] an old friend, Harry, but tell me where hearing only Nathan's side of it and making what they you've been for so Jong? could of it. But finally the introductions and brief Tell us what he's saying!' Zek's real voice, so urgent in histories were out of the way, and at last Gormley asked: Nathan's ear, and her hand falling on his shoulder, Now tell me, what can I do for you? Tell you your caused him to start. She knew he was speaking to father's story? But I know so little of it. I'm sure the new someone, but it was deadspeak, which was beyond her people could tell you much more than me. capabilities. 'Oh, I want to have Harry's whole story, from 'He thinks I'm . . . he thinks that I'm my father!' beginning to end, eventually,' Nathan nodded. 'But right Not Harry? Gormley's 'voice' was filled with now there are more important things. On my way here, astonishment, disappointment. His son? My God! Has it Ben Trask told me one or two things about you. And he been that long? was right: your talent alerted you to my presence, and my 'Didn't you know?' Nathan spoke out loud, which likeness to my father fooled you into contacting me. But made little or no difference; the presence of the Necro- would you have spoken to me if you'd believed I was scope was sufficient in itself; the dead man - his ashes someone else, not Harry?' — 'heard' Nathan's spoken words as clearly as his ... Ah! Gormley answered, after a moment. And: thoughts. 'I mean, about the passage of time? Have none Perhaps not. And I'll tell you why. of the others mentioned it?' 'No, let me tell you. There are things which even the Possibly (Nathan felt Gormley's deadspeak shrug). dead fear. Am I right? And someone who talks to the Time is of little importance ... here. Without you - or Great Majority, well, he just might be one of those things. rather, without Harry - it's been of no importance Do you understand me?' whatsoever! The one thing Trask hadn't told Nathan was how Sir 'You've simply lain there?' Nathan knew that the Keenan Gormley had died at the hands of just such a Thyre were not idle in their graves, so that this seemed 'thing': a necromancer called Dragosani, in the employ of to him a terrible waste. 'But what about the things you the then USSR's own E-Branch. And one other thing did in life, your interests in the corporeal world?' Nathan didn't know: that Harry Keogh had used his 597 596 Necroscope powers to kill Dragosani, going on to pare the 'My father was the Necroscope,' Nathan answered. Soviet organization down to the bone. 'Which is to say, he could talk to dead people, and it But now Nathan felt Gormley's unbodied shudder, and appears they loved him. But he had powers other than knew that he understood only too well. And: I am the that. I've been told that you were the key to the greatest victim of just such a monster, the dead man told him. A of those powers.' necromancer, who tore my corpse to pieces in order to get Gormley understood, but now Nathan sensed the shake at my secrets. And yes, you are right. These days ... the of an incorporeal head. No, the key was already in place. teeming dead are careful who they talk to. The part I played was to show it to him. And it was a key, 'Which is my problem exactly,' Nathan told him, and Nathan! A key to many doors. It was this: sensed Gormley's deadspeak gasp. The dead won't speak to you? Nathan's silence was his answer. But... have you tried? 'In my own world? Time and time again, ever since I was a child. There, it was the legacy and the fault of my Necroscope father. For in the end he was Wamphyri and not to be trusted. And so the Szgany dead -Travellers, Nathan knew the symbol at once; why, he even wore it Gypsies, my own kind - would have nothing to do with in his ear! His exclamation - his gasp of recognition -was me. Only the dead of the Thyre, nomads of the deserts, automatic. 'My father's sigil?' would let me into their minds. I benefited from it, and so Yes, in a way. Harry Keogh's emblem of power. did they. Here, in this world ... oh, I've heard the dead 'But what does it mean?' whispering in their graves, but you're the first who heard I'm no mathematician, Nathan. Gormley shrugged in me, and certainly you're the first who was willing to talk his deadspeak fashion. But I can try to tell you something to me.' about it. It would appear to defy logic by reducing three Gormley was silent a moment, then said: There's dimensions to two, and two to one. nothing to fear in you. You shine in the darkness - the 'Dimensions?' same as Harry in his innocence - and your presence is like The planes of existence in which we live. It reduces all a warm blanket over my grave. You do have your father's places to one place, or makes nothing of the gap between. warmth, or whatever it was he had. For sometimes Harry And when Harry used it, it even reduced time down to could be cold, too. Very cold ... NOW. He could go wherever he wanted to go, without He snapped out of it. So that's why you're here (Nathan covering the distance in between. And as a bodiless felt his decisive deadspeak nod). You require wraith, he even travelled in time. introductions. There are others among the Great Majority The ultimate Traveller!' Nathan sighed, and he smiled who you would like to contact, except you think they'll be sadly. 'He was Szgany after all.' wary of you. And your purpose? Gormley chuckled. If you want to put it that way. 598 599 'You called it a key to many doors.' Nathan was only mine but a problem facing all of the Great Majority. serious in a moment, for now he recalled what Thikkoul, a But... that would be to put the cart before the horse; first dead Thyre star-gazer, had said of his future as glimpsed the teeming dead must learn to trust you, and speak to in the stars through Nathan's living eyes: you. So for now you'd better tell me what's troubling you? I see . . . doors! (Thikkoul's voice had been the rustle 'A woman has ... well, it seems she's disappeared,' of dried leaves.) Like the doors on a hundred Szgany Nathan told him. 'She's very important, not only to E- caravans but liquid, drawn on water, formed of ripples. Branch but also to me. Her name is Siggi Dam; she was a And behind each one of them, a piece of your future ... member of the Opposition; last known location, Per- 'Doors,' Nathan said again, as Thikkoul faded into chorsk in the Ural Mountains. We can't be sure if she's memory. 'What did you mean?' dead, or if something else has happened to her. Only the Again Gormley's deadspeak shrug. Space and time. Of Great Majority would know for certain. Do you think course there are doors, but we can't see them. Harry you could ask after her, find out if Siggi's joined the could, and pass through them. ranks of the teeming dead? She was a telepath in life, and 'You said I have what he had.' Nathan was eager now. if she is dead should be easy to contact.' 'Well it's true, I do. But not all that he had. I want access A telepath? But in that case, wouldn't she have to the Mobius Continuum. I want to be able to use these contacted you? After all, you are the Necroscope. doors. Who do I speak to?' 'Still I need to be sure.' Why, who better than Mobius himself? Gormley Let me work on it, said Gormley, and I'll get back to answered. For it was his - what, metaphysics? His lateral you. Think of me now and again, aim your thoughts in thinking? - that brought the Mobius Strip into being in this direction, and as soon as I have something ... His the first place. And I do know this: that your father was deadspeak began to fade into a background hiss of with Mobius, this brilliant, long-dead mathematician, the mental static. And meanwhile (he was very faint now), first time he conjured one of his doors! you must work on your maths. Instinctive mathematician 'Then I'll go and try to speak to Mobius. Except . . . I that your father was, still he had a hard time of it. So I may need an introduction?' It was Nathan's turn to shrug. can't see that it will be any easier for you ... 'It's the way of things ...' The static took over completely. But coming right Pausing, at last he remembered his other reason for through it - not speaking to Nathan directly, but simply being here. 'Oh, and there's something else you can do thinking her own most passionate thoughts, most fervent for me. That is, if I'm not asking too much.' desires 'out loud' - Zek Foener's telepathic voice: Too much? My one contact with the living, breathing Nathan could talk to Jazz, tell him all the things world, and you're worried you might be asking too which, at the end, I was too late to say. He could actually much? Ask away! And Nathan, believe me when I tell talk to him! you I'll help you if 1 can. For you're not the only one Standing up and turning to her, he said: 'One day, I with problems. If we can solve yours, then - and only would be glad to, if it's what you want. You can count on then - you may be able to help me solve mine. And not it, before I go home to Sunside.' 601 600 She smiled her wan smile, sighed and took his arm. Gate - if we can do it. And meanwhile you'll be well And arm in arm, as they walked back down the wind- protected. My advice: give all of your attention to your blown aisles of the Garden of Repose to the gates, and instructors. And if Keenan Gormley comes up with a through them to the parked cars, Trask, Goodly and shortcut, well that will be all the better.' The cars sped Chung followed on behind. The men of E-Branch back to E-Branch HQ. wondered but said nothing. This was a good place to be quiet and keep the peace ... Harry's room was now Nathan's room. After eating with Trask and Zek at the hotel restaurant 'downstairs', he ... But as Trask got into the first of the cars with Zek and retired there with his thoughts. He had been aware Nathan, he was eager to ask the Necroscope: 'Well? And through dinner of two men seated at a nearby table, was I right? I know you spoke to Sir Keenan, but was it whose flinty eyes in blank, expressionless faces would worth it?' occasionally turn and stare in his direction. Trask, seeing 'Yes,' Nathan answered him, and went on to reveal him looking at them, had warned: 'Don't pay them too what had passed between them. 'Sir Keenan said he'd much attention. They're not E-Branch, not those two, but make inquiries for me, and get back to me as soon as he Special Branch. And they're your minders.' has something.' His minders. They were like chameleons: ever- 'Get back to you?' changing. He had met several, but they came and went. 'If I open my mind to him and seek him out, he'll Sometimes an E-Branch agent would be with them, other converse with me at a distance. Apparently that's not too times they'd be on their own. They guarded him -against hard, not now that we've been introduced.' the vengeance of Turkur Tzonov. 'And meanwhile?' But if Tzonov really has sent Siggi through the Gate, 'I'm to continue studying, improving my maths, which Nathan thought, where he sat in an easy chair beside his isn't the exciting thing I thought it would be.' Nathan bed, then he's the one who will need guarding. From me.' shrugged and pulled a wry face. 'It seems that in Harry, It was his vow. numbers were instinctive. But not in me. On the - Ah, but where vows were concerned ... well, he'd contrary? Perhaps because I carry them with me always, made them before. And so far they'd come to nothing. without knowing their meaning, they weigh on me and Outside in the corridor he heard soft, padding tire me out.' footsteps. His minders again? The Duty Officer? Almost 'We're all tired,' Trask nodded. 'A good night's sleep is unwittingly he put out a telepathic probe, and met with what we all need. Tomorrow you'll go back to basic the mind of David Chung. Chung stood right outside his numbers. In Harry's case it was an instinctive art, yes, but door with his fist poised to knock. even he required a final push before he made his quantum 'Come in,' Nathan anticipated him. leap. In his case it was do or die, and so he did. With you Chung entered, shrugged. 'I'm on duty. I was just it's not so urgent. In three or four months we'll be ready to passing by,' send you back through the Romanian 603 602 'Really? But you paused outside my door. I thought it 'What did you expect?' Nathan asked him. 'It's not of was one of my minders.' this world. It was given me by Maglore of Runemanse, 'Well in a way I am. We all are.' in Turgosheim.' Nathan pulled a face. 'I'm not sure I like being minded Chung shrugged. 'It was an experiment. You were so well.' Then he looked at Chung more squarely where wearing it when you came through the Perchorsk Gate. I the other leaned back against the computer console. wondered if I could make a mind-bridge to your vampire 'And I think you were more than just passing by. What's world, that's all. I should have known that I couldn't. It on your mind?' was the same with Jazz Simmons. When he went 'My talent is on my mind, and this room, and .. . that through the Gate all contact was lost.' Then he frowned. earring of yours. Every now and then you touch it sort 'So Maglore gave it to you, eh? Another sign of his of thoughtfully, like a moment ago, as soon as I "affection"?' mentioned it. We asked you about Siggi Dam's clasp, 'Actually, it's a strange story,' Nathan answered. 'For but not about that earring. Can you free it? I mean, you see, the loop with the half-twist is Maglore's sigil, would you mind if I held it for a moment? And would too. He's something of a mage - a mentalist, as I told you you also mind telling me where you got it?' - and on the night the Opposition sent their awesome Nathan freed the golden sigil from his ear and handed it weapon through the Perchorsk Gate, he dreamed of the over. 'I'm surprised no one else has asked me about it,' Necroscope's Mobius blazon. From which time forward he said. he took it for his own.' He paused a moment, giving 'But there's been so little time,' Chung answered. 'I Chung the chance to say: think you'll find they've all assumed it came from your 'Blazon? It surprises me you know that word.' mother, something Harry might have given her.' 'Why?' Nathan raised an eyebrow. 'It's a Szgany word. Nathan grunted and his look turned sour in a moment. Many of our words are more or less the same.' And when To my knowledge, the only thing she got from my father Chung made no answer he continued: was me ... and my brother, Nestor.' As soon as it was 'Anyway, my father died that night. Perhaps out he could have bitten his tongue. He'd wanted to something went out from him in addition to the images leave Nestor out of this, though why he couldn't say. which you saw here, and the fragment that entered the 'Nestor?' computer. Maybe his sign had the power to impress itself Nathan waved a hand dismissively. 'You can forget into the minds of all manner of sensitive dreamers and him. Nestor ... he died some years ago.' mentalists, such as Maglore of Runemanse. But as for 'The Wamphyri?' me, I'd known it even as a babe in arms, though that was 'Yes.' Oh, yes - yes indeed - Wamphyri! probably coincidental. When we were babies, my mother Chung had been examining the golden earring, holding it had given my brother and me leather straps to wear on our in his hands, crushing it between his palms almost in an wrists, so that she could tell us apart in the night. My attitude of prayer. Now he gave it back. 'Nothing,' he said. strap had the Mobius half-twist.' 'Oh?' said Chung, smiling. 'Coincidence? And your 604 605 father was the Necroscope, Harry Keogh? Well, perhaps on, gone elsewhere. There were other worlds beyond. It ...' His smile gradually faded as he watched Nathan wasn't quite a 'dead end', however. Hope hadn't blinked fixing the earring back in place. Then: 'I'd better get out in its entirety along with Mobius; there were other back to my station,' he said. incorporeal minds to contact, other mathematicians whose But as he reached the door and opened it: 'Nathan.' work in life had been just as enigmatic, just as Chung glanced back at the other. 'Do me a favour, will metaphysical. Gormley had a whole list of them. Maybe you?' Nathan should look some of them up instead. 'If I can.' Except . .. the old problem might still be there. The 'When you get back to Sunside - or even before you dead continued to shun living persons who could speak to get back - get rid of that earring. Maglore, this Wamphyri them. It was the legacy of Nathan's father; for he had mentalist of yours, he might have intended it as more opened the way for them, taught them to seek each other than just a gift. I mean, you know what my talent is, out in their loneliness, only to betray them in the end. The how it works? I locate things, people as often as not. And betrayal had worked both ways, it was true, but in that it helps if I can lock onto something, such as Siggi Dam's respect the dead could be forgiven. They didn't share the clasp, or an earring like the one in your ear.' freedom of the living. They were immobile; they couldn't Nathan nodded. He understood Chung's warning. 'You flee before the advance of a necromancer but must lie still think Maglore has the same sort of talent? That he might and suffer his tortures; they were terrified by the thought have been using me to spy on Sunside?' that such as Dragosani - and, in the end, Harry Keogh - 'It's just a hunch, but yes.' might return. By the thought that indeed one such might Again Nathan's nod, as his thoughts flew back once already have returned, in the shape of this man from another world. For they knew that Nathan was here, and more to his own world - this time to a man called lozel as yet they feared him. Kotys, once in Maglore's employ - and: Thanks,' he And so, as Nathan's resolve hardened more yet, his said. Til keep it in mind.' sleeping form grew still and calm again. Calm, resentful, and cold. Before the dawn, while Nathan dreamed, Sir Keenan Gormley got back to him. Siggi Dam wasn't among the Perhaps even as cold as his Necroscope father ... Great Majority. And if she was no longer in this world, there was only one other place she could be. In his sleep Nathan sweated, tossed and turned, ground his teeth. His conversion to E-Branch and his new-found friends was now complete. But Gormley had other news for him, too, and as Nathan's resolve hardened, so his plans must be altered. Mobius was no longer in his grave in Leipzig; only his bones were there now; the still-brilliant mind had moved 606 get used to was the foul weather. The seasons on Sunside had varied only marginally over four-year periods, when Ill the climatic changes were so slow and slight as to be almost unnoticeable. Here in the so-called 'hell-lands', The Nightmare Zone however — especially London in the winter — the weather was hell! Not as bad as Perchorsk and the lands around, but bad enough by any standards. At least in Perchorsk the temperature had been more or less constant, and the mountain ravines natural as opposed to the man-made canyons of the city. In his early days with E-Branch, the daily twenty-four Nathan had never had a cold in his life - until now! hour round of life itself was probably Nathan's greatest His nostrils had never before clogged up - until he physical and mental distraction. In his own world, where breathed the fumes rising out of the underground around fifty Sunside/Starside cycles were equal to an stations. The efficiency of his digestive system, his bowels entire 'year' Earthtime, a day was the equivalent of four to and the solid consistency of their contents had never five of this world's entire day/night cycles! And yet the been in question - until he ate with Ben Trask at various Traveller physiology had clung to its pre-holocaust Chinese and Indian restaurants. rhythms as developed through Szgany evolution on the All in all, life was uncomfortable here. It wasn't at all vampire world prior to the advent of the so-called 'white the world he'd envisioned as a stuttering loner in sun', and the typical Traveller would sleep as often as three Settlement, when all he'd wanted was to escape into his times - five or six hours a time -during the course of one own worlds of fantasy. But at the same time it wasn't long Sunside night. quite hell, and when the drizzly, dreary nights came Here when it grew dark, one slept - and only one sleep, down he didn't have to hide from monsters. Unless they which would normally only be broken to answer calls of were monsters out of his own past, his own memory. nature or duty - then woke up with the dawn. As for the Nathan's most recent monster was Turkur Tzonov, but impossibly short days: it seemed astonishing that these at least he wasn't Wamphyri (though well he might have people had ever found time to achieve anything. Yet what been, if what E-Branch suspected of him were the truth). they had achieved was itself amazing. Nathan could Separated from Tzonov by many thousands of miles, scarcely begin to consider the extent of their science Nathan couldn't hit at the man personally, but he could without his mind reeling from the sheer scope of it! do his best to damage his organization, ruin his planned In fact he was suffering a form of trans-dimensional jet- conquest of Sunside/Starside. If not in this world, then lag, where his body was desperately trying to adjust to certainly in his own. But to do that, and also to avenge if time-scales and -differentials far beyond the experience of not save Siggi Dam, he must first get back to his own any Sunside Traveller since time immemorial. But that world, and take with him all the weapons he could wasn't the worst of it; something else he must muster. 609 608 Nathan's best weapon, Trask had assured him, would Bryant nodded. 'Do you know what maths is, Mr be Nathan himself. But a Nathan trusted by the teeming Trask? Its definition? Roughly, it's the logical study of dead, and one who commanded the metaphysical Mobius quantity or magnitude. It uses rigorously defined Continuum as his father before him. With this in mind he concepts and self-consistent symbols in such a way as applied himself yet more diligently to his studies, to disclose the properties and relations of quantities and specifically the elusive and seemingly meaningless science magnitudes within its own parameters. It can be applied of mathematics. And as the first ten days flew by his or abstract, can make connections or remain purely progress was such that he could be proud of it. theoretical. Do you follow?' As his instructor explained to Ben Trask on the Trask nodded, then shook his head. 'I'm no mathematician, morning of the eleventh day: Mr Bryant. I follow you, but I don't follow you - if you 'He seems to have a natural talent for it, an intuitive follow me. Yes, I know Einstein's famous equation, but grasp of maths. At first I couldn't be sure; he was that's not to say I understand it. Why don't you just tell reluctant, easily sidetracked. But now ... well, it could be me what's on your mind, what's troubling you?' 'Teaching you'll soon have to replace me. My knowledge goes only Nathan is what's troubling me, because I can't teach him so far.' what he wants to know. Because maths won't cover it. Trask looked at the other across his desk. James Bryant May I explain?' 'Go ahead.' was perhaps the perfect stereotype. Small and slender, 'Let's look at that definition of maths again. The first studious in grey slacks and dark polo-necked pullover, word we come across is logical. Nathan's application is blinking owlishly behind thick-lensed spectacles, he just hardly logical. He wants to be able to "conjure doors"! had to teach something or other, preferably maths. The He believes that if he can frame or control a certain Minister Responsible had pulled him in from one of the equation or series of equations, then these "doors'" universities where his term of office had just run out. But (Bryant offered a baffled shrug) 'will appear. The physical out of the abstract.' Bryant's mind wasn't one-track; it wasn't bound by his subject. He had known from the start, even without the Taking a deep breath, Trask shook his head. 'Not the Official Secrets Act, that E-Branch was no ordinary physical, but the metaphysical, certainly. And surely government department, and Nathan no ordinary student. metaphysical and abstract aren't incompatible.' And this morning, for some reason or other, he appeared 'Exactly,' said Bryant. 'Except I'm not dealing with to have reached the end of his tether. metaphysics . .. though it strikes me that you are!' And 'Just how far does your knowledge go?' Trask asked remembering some of the things he'd seen in this place him. 'I mean, we've scarcely had time to talk to each during the past fortnight, he glanced around the office. other, let alone get to know one another. I know you were 'But men can't think doors into existence, Mr Trask. Or at. . . where, Oxford? Our Minister wouldn't have for that matter anything else.' recommended you for the job if you weren't worth your Trask wanted to say: Nathan's father couJd, but salt.' somehow managed to keep his peace. 'Men can think 611 610 'Not the rules of mathematics, no,' Bryant disagreed. thoughts into existence,' he said, without meaning to be And quickly went on: 'Look, let's get to the point. The clever. 'But I take your point, so do go on.' deeper I go with Nathan the less certain I am of my Zek Foener came to Trask's office door, looked inside ground. Soon I won't know if he's playing fair with me and made to turn away. Trask called out to her. 'Zek? It's or if he's ... well, bending the rules. If he is, he won't OK. Come in.' And to Bryant: 'Please carry on. This is learn anything. Not from me, anyway. So there's little interesting.' point in my trying to teach him.' Bryant looked at Zek, shrugged and said, 'Good morning. Then maybe you should try learning from him. Is that I was just explaining to Mr Trask why I can't go on what you're trying to say: that he's outstripping you?' working with Nathan.' She smiled and said, 'I'd like to hear that. Any insight Bryant shook his head, his frustration beginning to has to be better than none. Most have been favourable, show. 'I'm not jealous of him ... Not yet, anyway.' but all opinions count.' 'Maybe we should get another instructor, then? Someone 'My "opinion" is that he's a nice lad,' Bryant told her. 'It isn't who knows it all?' that I don't like him, only that I can't work with him.' He 'No one "knows it all", Mr Trask. It just gets more turned back to Trask. 'Back to the definition: rigorously complex, that's all. My suggestion: from now on let him defined concepts and self-consistent symbols. Mathematics do his own thing, without outside help or hindrance. That doesn't mutate. It grows, certainly, gets more complex the way, as soon as he discovers that numbers simply are - deeper we delve, but even to a computer a plus is a plus and a that they don't govern anything except themselves - he'll minus is a minus. Nathan wants to bend maths; if rules stop fooling with them. Then, with his . . . well, I can don't say what he wants them to say, he bends them.' 'Isn't only call it "intuition", he'll probably go on to make a that what rules are for?' Zek frowned. 'I mean, didn't we very capable mathematician.' once believe that the shortest distance between two Trask took a chance. 'You know of course that we points was a straight line? And wasn't it maths that want him to find his doors?' showed us we were wrong? Wasn't it maths that "bent" 'I guessed as much, yes,' Bryant answered. 'Also that the line and threw us a curve?' you are dealing with some pretty weird stuff around And Trask thought: But here in E-Branch we know here. Metaphysics? You as good as admitted it just a that the shortest distance between two points is in /act a moment ago.' There was a mildly scornful something in Mobius door! And I personally have seen Harry Keogh his tone that Trask, despite that he was sympathetic, disappear through just such a door! While out loud he didn't much care for. And: said: 'Pick a number,' Trask said. 'Any number between one 'Is it such a bad thing that Nathan is trying to create his and a million.' own system with its own rules? Why shouldn't he look at 'A trick?' numbers from all directions? As Zek said: isn't that what 'A demonstration.' rules are for anyway, so that people who are clever Bryant sighed and said, 'I have it.' And Trask glanced enough can bend them?' 613 612 But 'NZ' was their code for the Nightmare Zone, which at Zek. The merest glance, but she knew what he was a place right here in London. wanted. And smiling, she said: 'All the nines. 999,999.' The small hairs on the back of Trask's neck were Bryant frowned, said: 'How ...?' suddenly erect. Despite the comfortable temperature of 'I bent the rules,' she told him. The ones that guarantee the air-conditioned room, he visibly shuddered as his the privacy of your own mind. I'm a telepath. Which is gaze transferred from Bryant to Goodly, and he asked, only one of the rules that get bent around here.' 'You've seen it coming?' Bryant looked at her, and at Trask. 'E-Branch? ESP- 'Yes.' Goodly was like a ghost standing there, features Branch?' painted on his skull and his eyes sunk deep in their 'In one,' Trask told him. And: 'Another demonstration. Tell sockets, his voice a high-pitched, nervous warble. me something about yourself. Anything at all. Out of your 'When?' past. But among all the true things you tell me, make sure 'Within a week. I didn't try to narrow it down. But it's you stick at least one lie in there.' 'What?' Bryant looked going to be bad. It almost scared the shit out of me!' mystified. 'Do it.' It wasn't usual for lan Goodly to use that sort of term, Bryant shrugged and said: 'I was born at about two in the so that Trask knew that he had more on his hands than morning on the 2nd December 1975, in -' 'A lie,' Trask cut any problem presented by Bryant's quitting. In any case in. 'You weren't born in 1975.' The other blinked his eyes the precog had foreseen that, so it was going to happen. rapidly, and Zek told him: 'Ben is a human lie detector. And so: You can't lie to him. Anything false, he sees, hears, 'Mr Bryant, you're out of it,' Trask told him. And you smells, tastes and /eels it right away. We all have our may believe me, you're better off for it. 'You can do talents, Mr Bryant. Nathan, too. Except his is buried deep whatever is necessary to finish up your work here. You inside. We had hoped you could help us dig it out, that's will be paid for the full term of your contract, of course. all.' But I would remind you, you're sworn to secrecy - lan Goodly's gaunt frame loomed in the open door. He always.' must have heard something of the conversation, for now he entered and said, 'Mr Bryant is right: he can't help. Bryant nodded, said, 'Er .. . goodbye, then.' Nathan's maths has achieved such a level that he can now And when he was out of the office: 'A meeting.' be left to develop on his own. Mr Bryant will be out of Trask was back in action, the way he liked it. Ten here by this afternoon. And anyway, Nathan has work to minutes,' he rasped, 'the Ops room. Whoever you can do. It's coming, Ben. It's NZ time. A week at most, and muster from those in the building - oh, and Nathan, of we'll be dealing with that again.' course.' Only Trask knew what he meant. Zek hadn't been here For this time there was no question about it. This time long enough, and as yet Bryant wasn't entirely convinced they were going to need the Necroscope ... that this place was part of the real world. Those gathered in the Ops room were Frank Robinson, a spotter, Paul Garvey, a full-blown telepath, Ben Trask, 614 615 Zek Foener, lan Goodly, Nathan, and the empath Geoff you'll understand why everyone is so quiet. So that Smart who was just back from a stint in Glasgow's leaves three to choose. Who has the tally sheet?' Barlinnie Prison and a study of its psychopaths. This lan Goodly said: 'I have it.' The sheet matched up had been a Ministry of Health job - a feasibility study in names to cards; the first three names out of the deck treatment and rehabilitation - but something less than were it; Trask stopped shuffling and turned up the top healthy for Smart. After three months of close contact card. with the worst inmates of Barlinnie, Smart looked as if Three of hearts,' he said. he could use some help himself. Goodly shook his head. 'If I draw NZ,' he'd whispered to Goodly where they 'Seven of diamonds.' gathered in the Ops room, 'it will be peaceful by The same reaction from Goodly. comparison.' But in actual fact the mere thought of the 'Jack of clubs ... ah!' It was Trask's card. He had only Nightmare Zone made the flesh of each and every one done the job once before, and anyway he wouldn't have of them crawl. wanted to shirk his duty. That's me. OK, two to With the exception of the Duty Officer, all of the go-' above - the entire on-duty staff of E-Branch HQ, excluding He went back to turning cards and the next one up Nathan's minders, who weren't espers - were present as was the queen of hearts. It drew a blank. And: Trask took the podium. And leaning on the lectern he 'Ace of clubs.' told them: 'lan Goodly has forecast trouble in the That's me.' Paul Garvey wore an emotionless Nightmare Zone. Within the week. He says it's going to expression - always. With his remodelled face, the be bad. Now some of you have done this duty before, nerves not quite matching, smiles and frowns alike and others have been lucky. The same goes for a couple of came out as grotesque grimaces. agents who aren't here right now, out on field duty, or Trask drew two more blanks and then the four of resting at home. But when it's NZ time, all the names go spades. into the hat.' That's Anna Marie English,' Goodly said, 'but I know In fact, it wasn't a hat but a deck of cards. Trask took for a fact that she's already done it twice." the deck out from under the lectern's lid and shuffled it Trask looked again at the faces of his espers. 'I'm in full view of the assembled agents, telling them: sending Anna Marie out to Romania, and soon, to take 'Anyone who already did the job more than once can cry charge of the Refuge. So ... I vote we draw again.' off. No one will blame him or her. Anyone else who No one objected, and seven cards later the ace of doesn't fancy it can speak up now and we'll try not to hearts brought a small groan from Geoff Smart. blame him.' He looked from face to face but no one so Trask looked at Goodly, who nodded. 'It's Smart,' he much as twitched. said. And to Smart himself: 'How many times have you 'Zek,' Trask went on, 'you're sort of honorary here and done it, Geoff?' so you don't have a card. Nathan, you're in on this job 'Just the once,' Smart answered. 'Which is three times like it or not. I'll explain in a little while, and then as often as I wanted to!' 616 617 Smart was five-ten, blockily built, red-haired and beginning we were mindspies; we still are, to an extent, crew-cut. He looked like a pugilist, but in fact was mild- and possibly more so in the immediate future, but in mannered. What he lacked in looks was made up for by between we've sidetracked into all sorts of fields. All what Trask called his 'withness', his empathy, an intense sorts of minefields, too! Gadgets and ghosts, that's us ability to relate. He didn't just feel for a person but and always has been. But sometimes our ghosts do more became him, experienced his emotions, pains, passions. than just rattle chains ... It was something he could switch on and off like a light, 'Nathan, you're the Necroscope, so maybe it won't be which was as well. There were minds in Barlin-nie no so hard for you to understand or believe. Zek, you know one would want to relate to for too long. some of the things we've had to deal with in the past; it's 'Well, that's the four of us,' he now said, 'and the off- possible you'd accept this too, without letting it get to duties don't even know how lucky they've been! I you. Mercifully, you're not involved. As for the people suppose we're confined to this place until a hunchman who have had to deal with it - afterwards, when it's all says it's time, right?' over - they really do nightmare! Maybe that's why we From the podium, Trask nodded. 'You, me, Paul and call it the Nightmare Zone, and now I'll tell you how it Nathan, we're it. And when we get the signal from either started ... lan Goodly or Guy Teale - hopefully with just a little time to play with - then we enter the Nightmare Zone. 'John Scofield was one of our agents. He was the son of a Teale will have to be called in, if he's not already on his psychic medium, just like Harry Keogh. And John way, and lan ... you'll need to be on hand as the time radiated his ESP like a lighthouse beacon on a dark narrows down. I want as much warning as possible.' night. Our spotters could feel him coming a mile away, And as Goodly opened his mouth to make his usual he had that much power. Well, we thought maybe we comment: 'Yes, I know: the future isn't reliable. But it is had a Necroscope here, but we were wrong. your precinct, so work on it.' The power we felt in him wasn't... what, supernatural? And now for the first time Nathan spoke up. 'Just I suppose that's what most people would call messages what is this Nightmare Zone, and why do you all fear it?' from beyond the grave. No, his real talent was more Trask took a deep breath, said, This is for you and properly parapsychological. In fact he was telekinetic: a Zek. For you because you'll be in it, and for Zek because mover. Not a "nice" mover, but someone who could shift she has no experience of it. But occasionally something things with his mind. Think about that. Maybe eventually happens that stops even people like us; something so he'd be able to shift himself, do teleportation with his weird, so extraordinary as to defy all explanations. So mind, like Harry with his Mobius Doors. . . . really I don't have any explanation for it, except that 'As for John's deadspeak: I still believe it was in him it happens. but I don't think it would ever have amounted to very That's what E-Branch has been about right from the much ... not while he was alive, anyway ... start: the inexplicable, the outre, the macabre. In the 'We had him for a year and put a lot into him, hoping 618 619 that eventually we'd get a lot out. We didn't take our work slots before his concentration failed him. Perhaps the lightly: on the contrary, we knew what an awesome best "trick" he ever performed for me was to move a weapon we would have if it all worked out. What's more, sheet of paper across a desk, or to close a door, slowly, we knew that old adage about absolute power. quietly, just by looking at it. But all these examples were 'But more about his deadspeak: mainly harmless things ... while he was alive. I know I 'John believed that the dead talked to him, usually in keep saying that, but you'll see why in a little while. his sleep. Now, we know from the Keogh files that this is 'So he came to us - we spotted and recruited him -three possible in the case of a Necroscope. And Nathan has years ago this coming April, and we had him for a year. affirmed that it's so. But when we put our best espers on Until it happened. John had a wife and child. He'd John's case they came up with nothing, or at best the very married his sweetheart at nineteen and had a little boy faintest echoes. His talents were less than obvious when eight years old. I met his family on several occasions and he was asleep. And we had to ask ourselves: is his Lynn was stunning. The kid, too, was a jewel of a boy. deadspeak real or is he simply dreaming, fantasizing? And I never knew a man more in love with his wife than Remember, his mother had been a psychic medium - a John Scofield. fake, it would appear - but she had thought she was real. 'They lived in north London, the Highbury area. One Was her son's delusion, if that's what it was, something morning after a stint as Duty Officer, John went home which had come down to him from her? Or did he have and found the house broken into, his wife and child dead. deadspeak but in an as yet undeveloped form, which It looked like the kid had tried to protect his mother, and would grow with time? someone had kicked his head in. As for Lynn: she'd been 'Now the other side of him, his telekinesis: stripped, tortured, raped, and after a lot of suffering her 'John was one of the luckiest men alive - within certain killer had choked her with her own underclothes, which parameters. And here I'm talking about London's casinos. he'd stuffed with a madman's strength down her throat... When it came down to dice or roulette wheels . . . let it 'And of course John came to us for help. Not suffice to say that he got himself banned from most of the immediately, for there was help other than ours which he casinos by the time he was twenty-one years old. And he needed first. The psychiatric sort. No question about it, was "lucky" with the one-armed bandits, too. Enough that he was out of his mind for ... oh, a long time. Six months he made a living from his gambling. But an honest day's at least. But eventually he got it together again, or so we work? John Scofield never did one in his life! I'm not thought, and then he came to us. moralizing, just stating a fact. 'Along with some cash, Lynn's jewellery had been 'John didn't get it right every time, but when he was on taken. A few good pieces had been stolen, and some form it was devastating. I've seen him roll ten pairs of lesser stuff. But the thief's mistake was that he left any of sixes in a row, just for practice. And I've watched the it behind. It had all belonged to Lynn, and even the lesser little white ball drop into fifteen consecutive red or worthless pieces carried her aura. We gave 620 621 some of it to David Chung, which was akin to putting a before, now he really went over the top. God only knows piece of soiled clothing under the nose of a bloodhound! what was in his mind at that moment! But we all know 'When Chung came up with a location, we checked it what's been in it ever since - and what's in it right now! out and ended up with the name of a fence with a track 'Because that was when he took his cutthroat razor and record as long as your arm. After that, our part of the job put it to his own throat, and sliced as deep as he could go was complete and we handed the case over to the police, without actually sawing his own head off! gave it to them on a plate. But what we didn't know was 'Why did he do it? Well, we've thought about that... that we'd also given it to John on a plate. We had thought 'You see, whether we believed in John or not - in his he'd straightened out, but he hadn't. He wanted the deadspeak, I mean - he believed in it, just like his mother murderer of his wife and child. John wanted him had believed before him. Also, he'd read the Keogh files personally. and knew there are worlds beyond. Now that's a concept 'It was a close run thing. The police grilled the fence which it's still very hard for us to accept. Despite that we we'd given them. He still had items of Lynn's jewellery, knew Harry and now have his son right here in our midst, and finally coughed. When they went to pick up the perp it still feels very strange to us that death isn't the end, that from his place in Finsbury Park, John was right behind whatever a man was and did in life, he continues to be them. He followed them to a police station in the same and do in his afterlife. The reason it's hard for us is that area, and was immediately behind them when they took we're still very much alive. Who knows? Maybe the their man in for questioning. closer we get to it, the more we'll be willing to believe. 'The perp was as nasty a piece of work as you could But as I said, John Scofield did believe. In fact, John wish to find on the streets of London, or any other place knew that Tod Prentiss had got off too lightly, too for that matter. His name was Tod Prentiss and he had quickly and easily, and that his evil incorporeal mind was lots of previous convictions. Armed robbery, GBH, still thinking its evil incorporeal thoughts among all the burglary, a rape on a young kid that he'd so far got away generally clean thoughts of the Great Majority! with. Also, the police had found a couple of pieces of 'He knew that Prentiss would be thinking of the girls Lynn's junk jewellery in his flat. he'd raped and one in particular who he'd murdered, 'Inside the police station John saw the evidence, knew getting his mental rocks off on thoughts of Lynn's sweet that this was his man - and cracked. He'd taken a body before he soiled it and stilled the air in its lungs and cutthroat razor with him, and went for Prentiss to kill the blood in its veins. But worse than all that, John knew him! The desk officer had a gun. He made to produce it that Lynn was there! She was there in Prentiss's dead but Prentiss beat him to it, started shooting. He wounded world, where even now the evil bastard might be whispering two officers who got between him and Scofield, before a to her in the endless night of the tomb, telling her how good plain-clothes man with a handgun of his own came on the it had been for him and reminding her of the hell he'd put scene. In the shoot-out that followed Prentiss was hit in her through! And that's why John had cracked. the heart and died on the spot. And if John ScofieJd had been a little bit crazy 622 623 'For while Tod Prentiss had been put beyond John's the desk, and the time crept round to midnight. Which reach in this world, he was still very much "alive" and was when things began to happen. perhaps even available in the next. And what was there 'First of all, it grew cold. That was hard to understand. left for John here? Not even revenge, not now. But down Despite that it was bitter outside, the station was centrally among the teeming dead ...? His cutthroat razor had been heated and the heating turned up full. But the cold came John's visa into a world where he would continue to seeping from the rear of the station, out of the wide, tiled, pursue what he'd pursued here. In this world he had cell-lined corridor that led like a tunnel to the morgue. practised his deadspeak; perhaps with some small measure Back there was a door to that silent, grisly place, and on of success, we've no way of knowing now. But he'd also the other side of the morgue another door to the basement used telekinesis. Maybe that, too, would have its of the hospital. Of course at this time of night both doors incorporeal uses. The ability to move things with the were locked, and they would stay locked until the power of the mind alone ... And since mind would be all morning ... unless there should be business to attend to in John had left, there would be nothing to distract him the interim. from his main pursuit: that of a man called Tod Prentiss! 'Well, it was possible that something had gone wrong 'At the rear of the police station where the final act in with the refrigeration units, which might have started to this drama - or what ought to have been the final act - leak their frozen air into the corridor. But before the Desk had taken place, stood a morgue. In fact the morgue Sergeant and standby crew could investigate, they saw joined the police station to an old, brick-built Victorian their first real signs that something was very, very wrong hospital, and served both institutions or facilities equally - and not only with the morgue's refrigeration -and they well. As the mess got sorted out, both Scofield's and began to hear the sounds! Prentiss's bodies were put in cold storage there. And by The signs came first: The walls of the place seemed to that simple act - the placing in close proximity of these vibrate like a fleet of articulated trucks had gone by, two dead bodies - the police brought into being the causing "wanted" posters and other notices to come loose Nightmare Zone. and flutter to the floor. Documents on the desk danced in That night the duties consisted of a Desk Sergeant and their trays, and the cards on the small folding table his radio op assistant, a two-man standby patrol, and a shuffled themselves this way and that across the green car on prowler duty. It wasn't one of the big stations. baize. Venetian blinds at the windows went jerkily up and Some old down-and-out - a drunk with nowhere better to down, up and down, like some idiot was playing with the go - was snoring in one corner of the inquiries room; all cords and couldn't get it right. So maybe it was an in all it was quiet, and not a lot was happening. Nothing earthquake ... odd about that, for after all it was a wintry Wednesday '... Yes, and maybe the faint, dull grunting, the night, and the streets were empty. moaning, howJing, and crashing that was coming from 'All admin attended to, the Sergeant joined his standby behind the locked doors of that morgue was only the crew in a three-handed game of cards behind wind in the old brick chimneys, or the agonized, echoing cries of incurable patients in the old hospital, finding 624 625 their way down here from above. But it all added up to was coming, for his drawer had been forced from the too many maybes, and finally the Sergeant took the keys inside, and the lid almost torn from its hinges as the dead and went to investigate - on his own! rapist and murderer had tried to get away from his 'Now, I've read the reports over and over again, so that pursuer! I'm pretty sure I know what broke the Sergeant's nerve, 'And their bodies? put him in mental care, finally got him discharged from the They were discovered well away from the other six, in force. The reports speak of hooliganism, vandalism, and a corner lined with toppled filing cabinets where finally ghoulish activity. But the standby crew only saw what John had trapped his prey. There they lay, frozen again in was left after the sounds from the morgue had reached a the paralysis of death, one with his throat sliced open and crescendo and stopped - and after the Sergeant's weak, the other with a hole through his heart, and Scofield's cold shrill, girlish little titters had started! hands wrapped around Prentiss's throat as if to choke the Then they'd walked slowly and carefully down the tiled "life" out of him! tunnel between the empty cells and through the open door, 'And the Desk Sergeant? Well obviously he'd walked to find him stumbling about among all the debris, drooling right into it; he'd actually seen these two corpses ... what, like an infant, pointing to the mess in the morgue and fighting each other? Well, whatever name you'd give to muttering over and over again what amounted to a their zombie struggle. He'd seen it, and known what he confession of madness. And all around him ... was looking at, and couldn't accept it. Even here in E- '... Chaos! Most of the refrigerated drawers were open, Branch — knowing what we know, having seen what their - contents? - lying spilled on the cold tiled floor in we've seen - it would be hard enough. grotesque attitudes of disarray. It was as if some lunatic 'And as if all of this wasn't bad enough in itself, then had been looking for someone, a dead someone, and in his there were the looks on their faces: John with his lips frenzied searching had ripped open the rows of temporary drawn back in a snarl, cording the ligaments of his neck, coffins, tumbling the bodies out onto the floor. But those and Prentiss with his tongue lolling, eyes bulging, "scared bodies ... their positions! to death" of the madman who was killing him a second There were eight of them all told, and six of the eight time! The same man who couldn't lie still but would were where you'd expect to find them in those return to kill him again and again, presumably forever, or circumstances: close to the drawers which they'd at least until we can discover a way to bring peace again occupied. But the other two ... weren't where you'd expect to that dreadful place - to find them, and their coffins weren't in any condition '- That place we call the Nightmare Zone . ..' you'd expect to find them in! For it was John Scofield who had kicked open the bottom of his drawer, slithered out and gone on the rampage in the morgue, and it had been Tod Prentiss he was looking for - still looking for, even in death! What's more, Prentiss had known he 626 plus his telekinesis and a dash of sheer incorporeal malice, or revenge if you want to call it that - equals bad dreams, poltergeist activity, fear and loathing and a hell IV To Soothe of a lot of dirty work for us on this side! And the thing is, the Dead John probably doesn't even know he's doing it. Oh, he knows he's doing it to Prentiss, but he can't possibly know what effect it's having here in the world of the living. 'You see, he wasn't like that. John wouldn't be giving us all this trouble if he knew. Except he can't know, Looking down at the drawn, fascinated faces of his because living people can't talk to the dead ...' Trask espers, Ben Trask stood up straighter, straightened his paused and looked straight at Nathan. 'Or maybe we can shoulders. Towards the end of his story his eyes had - now. We damn well have to try, anyway ...' seemed glazed, almost vacant. Now they focused again After another long pause, Zek spoke up. 'You haven't and he coughed, clearing his throat before continuing. told us what's been happening,' she said. 'I mean, how is 'Almost done,' he said. 'These things I've been talking the Nightmare Zone getting bigger?' about happened some two years ago, just the way I've Trask nodded tiredly and seemed to slump down into told them to you, when E-Branch agent John Scofield himself once more. 'At first it was local,' he said. That took his revenge from beyond the grave. But as I also first time, it only affected the police station and the told you, or hinted, he hasn't let it go at that but keeps morgue. But since then it's been spreading. Four months right on taking his revenge. Which gets worse all the later it was half-way up the Seven Sisters Road, moving time. down towards Highbury, and into Stroud Green. Another 'Six times now he's been back, and each manifestation four months and it reached Crouch Hill, moved over into has been worse than the one before. The police station Newington, encroached upon Stamford Hill. Last time it has gone - or rather, it's just an old, dilapidated shell of a was as far out as Islington, Upper Clapton and Hornsey. place now - its area of responsibility absorbed into the At the rate it's growing, it's only a matter of time before larger Police HQ at New Finsbury Park. The morgue's no the whole of inner London falls inside its perimeter. Can longer a morgue, just a damp and disused basement. you imagine that? All London the heart of the Nightmare Even the hospital has closed down, eaten up in the Green Zone! Health Plan and moved out into the countryside. But these 'As for what happens, what John Scofield's "talents" places didn't just close down, they had to close down. cause to happen ... that has to be seen to be believed. Because as John Scofield practises his telekinesis in the Inanimate objects move of their own volition, graveyards next world, so he gets better at it. . . send out foul-smelling fogs in the middle of summer, pet '... And the Nightmare Zone gets bigger! dogs set up a frenzy of howling for no apparent reason. That's how it all works out, you see? Deadspeak or Fires start by what appears to be whatever power it is that John's got on the other side - 628 629 spontaneous combustion, and go out again just as John snarling his loathing, while Prentiss screams and mysteriously; street lights dim and only come up again runs and tries to protect himself, uselessly. It all takes when it's over; rats pour out of the sewers, and roaches place in the very heart of the Nightmare Zone, of course, desert infested houses in their droves! Dead things — I but its psychic echoes are spreading, and its physical mean people or the left-overs of people, zombies, corpses, manifestations are getting stronger all the time.' cadavers - are seen moving, walking, crumbling in the Zek was bewildered. 'And no one has wondered about weirdest places: private gardens, behind the plate-glass it? I mean, among the ordinary population?' windows of locked stores, along disused railway lines and 'Oh, yes,' Trask told her. 'Psychiatrists, the governors in underground stations. Even time is affected. There are of mental institutions, the police - who get called out to inexplicable distortions: events which should take hours so many "bogus" sightings — all sorts of people. They all are contracted down into minutes, while others of short wonder about it, but they've no answer to it. For they duration extend themselves apparently indefinitely. And don't know the cause. Only we know that, for we're the these are just a few of the so-called "poltergeist activities". people who have to contain it. We're the ones who have 'But the morning after ... never a sign that anything is to fight it. Except... we're losing the fight.' out of place, and everything back in working order. 'How do you fight it?' Nathan was curious. 'Where?' Except that for the people who saw, felt, dreamed or 'Where else?' Trask looked at him. 'Down there in that experienced something, anything of it . . . nothing will old basement behind what used to be a cop shop in Old ever again be quite the same for them, and they're all Finsbury Park - "dead centre" of the Nightmare Zone. mortally afraid ... They died there, those two, and that's where John The dreamers are the ones who suffer most.' Scofield continues to chase his prey back into this world 'Dreamers?' This was Nathan again. once in a four-month, so that he can kill him all over 'Dreamers, yes,' Trask nodded. 'It happens at midnight, again.' when most of the city is asleep. But there are dreamers 'And you want me to help?' and there are dreamers, Nathan. Sensitive people know 'You're the only one who can.' when it's coming, and not just inside the Nightmare Zone. 'But so far Keenan Gormley is the only one who will Psychics the world over are wont to nightmare when John speak to me.' Scofield goes on the rampage, tracking down and killing 'So use him, tell him what you're doing, ask for his Tod Prentiss - again and again and again. help. Keep up the pressure. You know, Nathan, your 'A thousand men, women and children have dreamed father used to say that the dead know just about it: John Scofield after his prey with a razor, an axe, or a everything there is to know. Make friends with the Great blowlamp. Or Tod Prentiss with his face burned off, or Majority, and you can consider any other problem at least with his belly slit open and his entrails uncoiling, or with half-way solved.' his eyes dislodged and flopping on his cheeks. 'And if John Scofield simply won't talk to me?' Trask got down from the podium, approached Nathan and put a hand on his shoulder. 'Well, if you can't 630 631 of other aid programmes, ensured that the presence of make him listen to your deadspeak beforehand, then it such men was appreciated - certainly by those people 'in will just have to be on the night.' (His face was suddenly charge'. gaunt and grey.) 'The night when you meet John face to Premier Gustav Turchin was one such authority. face, and put yourself in his way when he goes after Tod Despite the devolution of almost all of the countries and Prentiss to re-kill him, and risk your very sanity trying to ethnic territories within the old borders, Turchin was a keep the two of them apart ... down there in the central pivot - even a father figure - whose principal Nightmare Zone.' purpose was to keep his many squabbling children in And Nathan's voice was unaccustomedly hoarse as he order and so prevent the collapse of his great asked: 'When will that be?' ungovernable estate into further chaos. And since many But Trask's was hoarser as he answered, 'As of now, of these awkward children were nuclear powers in their we're not sure. But it'll be soon, son. Too damn soon by own right, his was a very important position. far...' But 'Premier'? Hardly that, not in the sense of For the next two days Geoff Smart was Nathan's constant Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Gorbachev and others companion. Trask would have preferred to put aside his before and since them. They had been Premiers, and up administrative work entirely and devote all his time to to Gorbachev's time at least had been all-powerful from Nathan; but there were important matters which must be their seats in Moscow's Kremlin. Turchin wasn't in the dealt with, arising out of what Nathan had told E-Branch same league; his power was that vested in him by the about Turkur Tzonov, and what the Head of Branch had people of many neighbouring but separate states seen with his own eyes in Per-chorsk. That was why covering a vast tract of land which was formerly the Smart was temporarily standing in for Trask as Nathan's Soviet Union, and it could be removed from him just as mentor: to give his boss time to attend to such items as easily. had come up. Turchin was literally the 'popular choice', wherefore he For fifteen years now, Britain, France, Germany, the must try to make popular decisions on behalf of all of USA and half a dozen other interested countries had had these frequently opposed states or find himself out of a influential men, call them 'advisers', in the variously titled job. In a way, he might even be seen as the East's answer 'United Soviet States', the 'Free Soviet Alignment', or to the Secretary General of the United Nations, except simply the USSR, as some world authorities still insisted the nations Turchin spoke for were weak and mainly on designating their tired old 'enemy'. These men were divided by poverty, petty jealousies, and old feuds; while not engaged in espionage as such but did 'keep their eyes' the West was stronger than ever before. In short, the on things. In a country as vast and sprawling and still as Premier could and must advise, if only to avoid chaos and anarchy - but he could never command. volatile as the no longer entirely 'united' USS, the West's vastly superior communication systems, famine relief On the other hand he did have power of a sort. For organizations, nuclear proliferation and pollution control while his people could be rid of him if and whenever elements, and a witch's dozen 632 633 they so desired, they still had need of a representative on machine whose like had been banned for sixty years, since the world stage, and Gustav Turchin made an imposing World War II, when the Nazis had been known to be figurehead. He had the charisma of a world leader, if not interested in just such a device: a brain-washing machine the financial or physical energy. And while his own which could empty its victims of all knowledge and people might occasionally threaten his so-called 'position intelligence, and in fact reduce them to vegetables — and of power', no threat of theirs could ever carry the weight then to corpses. of his - to simply quit. That Tzonov had planned to use this forbidden machine And because he was mainly responsible for his nation's on a man (a human being, not a monster) who had come cohesion and security, he did have a measure of control through the Gate from the other side, in order to obtain over certain elements left over from former times. For advance knowledge of his intended conquests. And that instance, a much impoverished KGB, and 'the he had only been thwarted by the escape of the alleged Opposition', of course: Moscow's own ESP-Agency, the 'alien'. That this refugee, not only from a cruel world but Soviet equivalent of E-Branch. This made him Turkur also from Turkur Tzonov's cruelties, had flown to the Tzonov's direct superior; and who better for the West to West and provided British E-Branch with much of the talk to about Tzonov's indiscretions? above information. The Minister Responsible for E-Branch had been given And last but not least, that one Siggi Dam - a telepath a full briefing by Trask, and had passed on the salient in Tzonov's employ, who might have been partly points of that briefing to a British 'representative' in responsible for the escape of the alien from Perchorsk - Moscow, an 'economic adviser' who had the ear of seemed now to have disappeared off the face of the Earth. Premier Gustav Turchin. Thereafter there had been much It was quite possible that Tzonov had taken his own toing and froing by Trask and the Minister Responsible, 'punitive measures' against her, and disposed of her in between E-Branch HQ and Whitehall, and the Minister's such a way that she could never trouble him again. Not in scrambler telephone had been hot with messages sent this world, anyway. down it to Moscow. These items in brief - plus a reminder that it was Gustav The 'salient points' had been these: Turchin himself who had requested the Branch's That Turkur Tzonov had built up a small arsenal of assistance at Perchorsk - comprised the contents of the weapons in the subterranean complex known as Per- coded, scrambled messages which had gone out to 'our chorsk under the Urals. That we, the West (in particular man in Moscow', and from him to the Premier during an intelligence agency of the British Government) had several private meetings. Since the preparation of these reason to believe that Tzonov might be planning a limited messages (not to mention their painfully neutral, carefully invasion of the parallel world of vampires known to lie diplomatic wording) had been left to Trask, he'd had more beyond the Perchorsk 'Gate'. That it was possible he than enough to keep him busy and on his toes ... would use the spoils of such an invasion to further his But in the early afternoon of the third day following own causes ... whatever they might be. That Tzonov had Goodly's NZ warning, as the secure channels to Moscow illegal control of a sophisticated cooled a little and Trask waited on the results of his 634 635 reporting, Geoff Smart came knocking on his office something, expose something. You're trying to widen door to talk about Nathan. his potential. But his nature, aura, everything about him, 'How's it going with him?' Trask wanted to know. is already mature. He's at his peak. Oh, you can teach The empath shrugged, then said: 'Nathan's a difficult him, he can still learn things, but from now on that's one to read. No, that's an understatement: at first he cosmetic. I mean ... he's already equipped. He has was impossible! I got a sort of whirlpool, or maybe a everything he needs. That's the feeling I get: that he's tornado. And yet it wasn't emotional. In fact it covered like a baby who's about to become a toddler. One day he his emotions and obscured them, and probably his stands up, takes a first wobbly, tentative step, and walks! thoughts, too.' And before you know it he's climbing trees. Nathan's a 'The numbers vortex,' Trask nodded. 'We know about newly hatched moorhen at the edge of its nest over the that. It's the stuff that's in him, which we want to draw water. The hen only needs to give her chick a push ... out. You're right: it covers his thoughts like a blanket, and he swims! Do you follow me? I mean, I know what blocks out telepathic probes. We're fairly certain it's I'm talking about because I'm an empath, but I can't be something come down to him from his father, and we've sure I'm.getting through to you.' been looking for ways to improve upon it.' 'I do know what you mean, yes,' Trask answered. 'Then you're probably wasting your time,' Smart told There was a time when all his father needed was a push, him. too. What you're saying is: he's got the machinery, but he 'Come again?' Trask couldn't tell if it was good news or hasn't plugged it in yet?' bad. 'When I stand beside him,' Smart said, 'it's like standing 'Once he got used to me, accepted me, saw that I wasn't a between a couple of giant electrodes. I mean, it's telepath or voyeur in the common sense of the word, his frightening. I think: Jesus, thank God the power's off! shield went down. Then . . . I really did get to him. And I Why, he's like some kind of small Nightmare Zone in have to tell you, that boy has emotions! Passions, fears, his own right!' And Trask saw him give a small, involuntary angers, hatreds: the full spectrum - but intense! If he's shiver ... typical of his world, it must be one hell of a place.' But his words were like an invocation; for a moment 'You haven't read up on Sunside/Starside?' Trask's later, lan Goodly and Guy Teale were shoulder to shoulder voice was sharp-edged. His orders had been very clear. at the door. Just glancing at their faces, Trask knew what 'I have, yes, but it still reads like fiction. That's what it was. He indicated that they should enter, and said, I'm trying to tell you: that Nathan has brought it all Tonight?' home to me. It's real now. Only a real place could do The cadaverous Goodly nodded and said, 'Has to be, that to someone. He's . . . a mess!' Ben. We can feel it building even now. John Scofield 'So would you be, if you'd been through all that he's has refuelled his batteries and is about to give it hell -or been through,' Trask answered. 'What else? And what give you hell, as it works out. And I hate to say it, but makes you think we're wasting our time?' better you than me!' 'Because you're looking to enlarge him, give him 637 636 The sooner they got to it the better. Then, as the thing fronts gazed out on a chilly afternoon, Nathan already began to build through the afternoon and evening, they had his answer. would feel it and know its strength. Yes, the teeming dead knew about John Scofield; Driving out to Old Finsbury Park, Trask suggested to indeed, he was the 'problem' Sir Keenan had mentioned Paul Garvey, their driver: 'It mightn't be a bad idea to when first Nathan went to see him. And no, there was no stop somewhere and eat.' solution, not that Gormley could suggest anyway. 'Do you really feel like eating?' Garvey glanced at him Perhaps not surprisingly, the place beyond death — which in the front passenger seat. was in fact no place, just a void, or at best an echo chamber for the voices of the incorporeal - was usually 'No, but what with getting our act together and all quiet and melancholy. People who expired and joined the that, we seem to have missed lunch. A couple more Great Majority, they took time to settle in, but in the end hours, we'll miss dinner, too. I for one don't fancy doing their frustrations and anxieties dwindled and disappeared, this on an empty stomach. By tonight we'll really be by which time they were ready to take their places in the hungry. Now that would be the wrong time to eat!' beyond. And usually, that place was quiet. From the back of the car, perhaps naively, Nathan But it could be unquiet, too. Like now. Murder victims - spoke up. 'I'm hungry now,' he said, which settled people who lost their lives needlessly, hideously, and matters. often at the whim of psychopathic monsters who would They stopped for half an hour at a greasy spoon where go on unpunished in the world of the living, or at best their 'alien' enjoyed sausage, bacon, eggs, and a mug of imprisoned but still alive, while their victims had been tea, just as he'd had for breakfast. Indeed, the standard robbed of that happy estate -they took longer to accept English breakfast seemed to suit Nathan so well it might their fate. And sometimes they never would accept it. have been devised specifically with him in mind. The rest of them had sandwiches and coffee. Lynn Scofield and her son, Andrew, fell within the latter category. Lynn had been used monstrously: her As they got back into the car, Nathan told them his home and body broken into, both violated and the latter immediate intention, and as he settled in a corner of the destroyed. She had died with her throat stuffed with her rear seat and closed his eyes, they kept their conversation own underwear, but not before she'd seen her son's head to a minimum. He was talking to the ashes of Sir collapse under the assault of a maniac's booted feet. Keenan Gormley in his Garden of Repose a good many miles away, to find out if the Great Majority knew about As for Andrew: he had seen his mother's rape and had John Scofield and the Nightmare Zone, and to discover been knocked aside, almost unconscious, as Pren-tiss whether Gormley could suggest some possible solution. took her first as a man, then as a beast, and finally into And as the esper team drew up in their vehicle outside her choking, convulsing throat. And when the battered the rundown police station in a wide, windblown street boy had crawled to Lynn yet again in a vain where yesterday's newspapers flapped like ghosts and the bleary windows of half-empty shop 638 639 attempt to fight this mad beast off, then Prentiss had They, too, felt the build-up of metaphysical pressures finished the job and kicked him to death. as each four-month cycle approached its climax, and they Well, and Nathan had said that the dead were often knew the disruption which the release of John Scofield's restless. So they were. But in Lynn and Andrew Scofield's mental energy would bring to them on their own level: case it went far beyond that. These two could scarcely be the 'static' blocking their deadspeak; the agony of John's said to be 'resting in peace', far from it. In those long, psychosis, which each and every one of them felt as terrible last minutes before they died, they'd been filled Scofield drove his incorporeal mind to the limits of its with a frenzy of fear, furious but impotent, and driven into potential; even the possibility that in his madness he a state of abject terror. And they still were. Inconsolable, might disrupt the 'aether' of death itself, and in so doing mad with shock and completely unable to accept what had destroy the very element of their communication. Which happened to them - this descent into a vast, unfeeling was everything that they possessed. darkness - the Great Majority could not comfort them nor If you couid only get through to him, Sir Keenan even get close enough to try. They had shut themselves Gormley had told Nathan across many deadspeak miles, out ... no, they had locked themselves in! Into the security where the Necroscope had huddled in the back of a car of their own minds, mother and son together. Which had speeding him into the heart of the Nightmare Zone, if you seemed to them the only safe place to be until John came could only speak to him, then perhaps you could make home and put everything right again. him understand the danger in what he's doing. There have But as for John Scofield himself: always been 'ghosts', Nathan, pitiful creatures who retain He couldn't come home, couldn't join them in their too much of the living world and forever try to return to it, limbo, not until Tod Prentiss was brought to justice. and never settle into this place at all. But they are nothing Except John was unable to find a punishment to fit the compared to John Scofield. He is trying to return to your crime; there was nothing cruel enough, no measure he side permanently, and take Tod Prentiss with him for his could take to even the score. Which was why he pursued own maniacal purposes! Now much as we dislike it, there Prentiss beyond death itself, and would continue to do so is a balance between life and death. And it's a balance that for as long as his incorporeal, telekinetic powers would John could disturb forever. let him. Powers which in his case were not diminished but To which Nathan had answered: One man? One dead continued to grow. man, with so much power? And oh, yes, the teeming dead knew all about John And he had sensed Gormley's patient deadspeak nod as Scofield, and about Tod Prentiss. The former who they he argued: But wasn't your father ;ust such a man? A couldn't reach, for his passion made him deaf to all their determined man with metaphysical talents? And Harry's deadspeak pleas for sanity, and the latter who begged talents were also exponential, Nathan: he went from their mercy, their forgiveness, their protection. For if the strength to strength right up to the moment when - Nightmare Zone was a menace in the world of the living, - When he died? For the first time there was a it was no less problematic in that place beyond life, where the minds of the dead lived on. 641 640 certain sadness in Nathan's deadspeak voice as he Possibly. A theory, that's all. mentioned his Necroscope father's death. And if it did, what then? Yes, Gormley sighed. Even from another dimension, Then? (Now there was a hint of terror in Gormley's something of his unthinkable pain reached out to us and deadspeak voice.) It would be the last trump, when not found us here. His pain, and that of his son who died with only /ohn Scofield and Tod Prentiss, but all of the Great him in your parallel world of vampires. Majority would walk of their own volition! Burial grounds And: His son, Nathan had thought to himself. Harry would give up their dead, and the world would be full of Keogh's son, but by another woman. The Dweller: my the unbearable odours of the tomb! Grief-stricken changeling brother! families would be reunited - but in the most monstrous But Gormley had continued: way - when their dearly beloved dead ones came And so you see, in some men if their will is strong knocking on the door at the dark of the moon! Why, it's enough, the possibilities are endless ... likewise the unimaginable! There would be plagues, wars between the damage they can inflict! Just think of it: before your living and the dead as the world became a madhouse. father and The Dweller died, they woke the dead in And everyone who died in those wars ... would join the Perchorsk to do their bidding and put an end to any ever-swelling ranks of the Great Majority in their strange further agonies! Even here we heard The Dweller crying new undeath! out for help, and knew how we had betrayed his father. At that, Nathan had thought of what Ben Trask had (At which point Nathan had sensed Gormley's frustrated told him of the NZ's manifestations. '... People, or their deadspeak shrug.) And yet, apparently, it is a lesson that left-overs — zombies, corpses, cadavers — are seen the Great Majority still haven't learned. For even now moving, walking, crumbling in the weirdest places ...' they deny you ... Phantoms, of course, revenants forcibly moved by John Here he had paused, only to continue in the next Scofield's telekinetic powers into an incorporeal or at moment: I mention this only to illustrate what may be best ethereal existence on the living plane ... achieved by strong men, even in death. And who is as But an entire world where the living and the dead strong as a madman, eh? Well, this John Scofield is very could only be told apart by degrees of decay ... ? Sir strong, you may believe me! Keenan Gormley was correct: it was unimaginable, and Then Nathan had asked: What is the worst he can do? as a 'theory' must never be put to the test! Again Gormley's shrug, frustrated as ever. There are For the dead of this world were not like the Thyre of those among the dead with ... theories. Except you must Sunside's endless furnace deserts. The nomadic Thyre understand, they are only theories. Heaven forbid they were gentle, civilized beyond their environment and should ever become fact! But if John Scofield's mode of existence. When Rogei the Elder, Nathan's first telekinesis was able to stretch the fabric which separates friend among the Thyre's teeming dead, had dragged life from death far enough - himself - or rather, his mummified lich - from his niche in - It might break? the Cavern of the Ancients to succour Nathan, no fear had attached to his ... activity; no stenches had 642 643 accompanied it, no malice was implied or intended. And 'Deserted,' Nathan said, getting out of the car. 'But the it would have been the same with all the dead of the whole street?' Thyre. Trask nodded. 'At both ends of the street you'll find But in this world and among these people? the odd shop or two still open, and a couple of houses In this world there were psychopaths, terrorists, still occupied, but mainly the entire area is falling into rapists, murderers, arsonists. Among these 'ordinary' dereliction. Let's face it, would you want to live here?' people there were those whose thoughts and deeds might The expressionless Paul Garvey had keys to the place; even equal the evil of the Wamphyri themselves! In death he opened the doors and Trask and his team went in; the such men were of no consequence; they were shunned by interior smelled stale, damp, strange. More like some the Great Majority - quite literally 'excommunicated' by cavern lair than a building. 'It lingers,' Trask explained, them - but what would they be in the world of Keenan his voice echoing. The smell, the feel, the aura as a Gormley's as yet theoretical 'strange new undeath'? whole. But back there -' grimacing, he nodded his head Monsters as before? Warlords? Psychopaths, murderers, towards the unseen reports room and the rear of the rapists and arsonists as of old? And what of the rest of building '- is where it's at its worst.' Trask's 'poltergeist manifestations'? The inexplicable Silent except for their oddly muffled footsteps, the frenzy of household pets; ghost-fires that started and four passed through the inquiries and waiting room into stopped themselves, as by some otherworldly the reports centre with its slightly elevated counter and spontaneous combustion; foul-smelling graveyard fogs, operations area, where Trask lifted a flap gate in the desk and the like? to climb a pair of shallow steps up into the Desk Merely a prelude for things to come? Sergeant's domain. They were playing cards right here,' Trask's hand fell on Nathan's shoulder and caused him he said, 'the night all of this got started. And down there,' to start. He looked up into the other's face, then at the he nodded towards an open door at the rear, where a gaunt, wintry-grey street with its whirling newsprint and damp-shining corridor led the way into an aching, sweet-wrapper dust-devils, and its bleary-eyed houses and echoing darkness, 'that's where the morgue is ..." store fronts. And: Paul Garvey had never been here before. He asked, This is it,' Trask told him, holding the car door open. 'OK if I take a look?' He had the rest of the keys on a 'The epicentre. The heart of the Nightmare Zone. And in large key ring, including the one for the morgue. there ... that's where you'll find the very heart . . . " He Trask nodded. There should be a gradual build-up of pointed to the dilapidated police station, where an old- psychic energies until just before midnight. After that ... fashioned lamp - with many of its trapezoids of blue it'll be a riot! Until then, you'll be safe down there. But it glass standing like broken teeth, shattered in their cast- will probably feel weird.' iron frame - was bracketed over scarred oak doors with The left side of Garvey's face twitched where, after all small-paned, reinforced glass windows in their upper these years, severed nerve-endings were still trying to panels. 'We've got something over six hours to get match themselves up. Johnny Found had cut him to ourselves settled in. Well, to prepare ourselves, at least.' 644 645 the bone that time, so that in fact Garvey was lucky to what the other had seen: metal coffins, and the dead bodies have a face at all. 'Hey,' he said, 'it feels weird enough to inside them trying to sit up - their faces twisted in horror at me right here, right now!' And as he started down the the knowledge that they were dead yet still mobile! corridor between the rows of empty cells, Nathan walked They were what?' Trask brushed past the others and behind him. into the morgue. 'Alive?' Just inside the corridor there was a light switch. Nathan followed him into the large, cold square room Garvey snapped it up and down once or twice but the and looked all about. But there was nothing to see. No lights stayed out. The small hairs at the back of Nathan's steel caskets, no filing cabinets or corpses, nothing. neck began to creep; he could feel something stirring; it Nothing to see or feel at all, except the cold. Garvey, was almost as if a waft of foul air had brushed his cheek, shivering uncontrollably and looking into the room over so that he held his breath for a moment to avoid inhaling Geoff Smart's shoulder, said: 'I saw what I saw, and then it. Garvey had felt nothing; he went on, but Nathan held . . . I didn't!' back a little to see if the thing recurred. Then Garvey Trask grunted and said, 'It's started. And earlier than was at the door to the morgue, and the keys jingled in his ever before.' Then, glancing out into the corridor at hand. Smart: 'Do you feel anything?' A moment more and the doors stood open. Garvey The empath's eyes were wide, his red brush of a went in, and Nathan moved to close the distance between crewcut seeming more than ever erect. The same as I them. But in the twenty paces it took to pass along the felt last time,' he said. 'Only stronger, much stronger. I corridor ... feel mounting fear, horror -' '... What the hell?' Garvey's shaken voice came echoing The Great Majority,' Nathan broke in. 'I can feel them, back to him; and to Trask and Smart, still in the Duty too. Their terror.' Room. 'But I thought this place was supposed to be - - And I feel. . . a monstrous anger!' Smart finished. empty?.'1 The last word sounded as a gasp. And as Trask said, That'll be John.' And turning to Nathan, Nathan reached the doors Garvey came stumbling out, with some urgency: 'Son, I think maybe you'd better his face white as chalk. start doing your stuff right now. The sooner you can Trask and Smart came running, their feet clattering on make contact - if you can make contact - the better.' the tiles. 'What is it, Paul?' Trask's rasping query grated The air was colder still, and the temperature still on nerves that were suddenly raw. falling. Nathan's breath plumed as he answered, Til bring a Garvey flapped a hand at the yawning doors to the chair from the other room. Then I'll ask you to leave me morgue. 'In there,' he gasped. 'Containers littering the alone. If I need you, I'll call. But right now I would prefer to floor. I saw bodies tipped out, grotesquely sprawled. be alone. You're all espers. If you can feel something of the There were filing cabinets all tumbled in a corner. But dead, then maybe they can feel something of you. Since it the corpses. They were ... they were ...' bothers them to talk to me, your presence can only make it Nathan looked inside Garvey's head, read his mind. It that much more difficult. Also, I need to concentrate.' was easy, for Garvey was a telepath, too. He saw 646 647 He headed for the corridor but Trask stopped him. Til overcoat to him anyway. Out in the corridor, Smart took go and get your chair. You stay here, and try to contact ... first watch while Trask and Garvey went back to the Duty them. Here, take my overcoat. The rest of us, we'll take Room. turns out in the corridor.' And there in the heart of the Nightmare Zone, Nathan After he had left, Nathan asked Geoff Smart: 'What did collapsed his shield of alien numbers and opened his mind, you do last time?' hoping that the Great Majority would sense him there not 'What we always do: we tried to contain it. I can't say as a thing to be feared but as their friend. And then that he how much good we did, but we used whatever psychic would be heard and heeded by all the teeming dead ... powers were available in us to suppress the thing. I'm an empath: I used my talent to calm the atmosphere of the place, the unquiet spirits which were at work in it . . . to calm John Scofield, I suppose. Telepaths do the same: try to talk the thing down, with their minds. The others do whatever they can. As for Ben, he's good for moral support. In matters like this Ben's the rock that we all lean on.' 'Wouldn't it be better if the whole team, E-Branch in its entirety, were here to contain it?' Smart's face was white in the frame of the doorway. 'The truth of the matter is,' he said, 'that we simply can't afford it. If matters got out of hand - if it got lethal - this way we know that only four of us pay the price. The survival of the Branch is paramount.' Nathan frowned. 'Yet you let the head of the Branch risk his neck?' Smart grinned, however humourlessly. 'Have you ever tried arguing with him? I'm not going to be the one who tells him to go home. Nathan, this man stood side by side with your father against vampires - even against Wamphyri! Now that might not be such a big deal in your world, but in this one . ..' Trask was back with a metal-framed chair. Nathan took it to the centre of the room, sat down and drew Trask's overcoat more tightly round his shoulders. The cold seemed to have receded a little, but he drew the 648 feared Nathan, and at any other time must surely have detected him by now, but their circumstances were such V Dead that his presence had passed by unnoticed. So the Great Majority continued to voice their fears in Voices the unending night of death, and Nathan listened in, trying to decipher their deadspeak whispers and uncertain as to his best course of action. And yet if he was to help them, help himself and his new-found E- Branch friends, he must break in, must attempt to It was a tumult of distant, only half-discernible whispers, establish some kind of contact at least. Perhaps by now a babble - a Babel? - but of crumbling autumn leaves Sir Keenan Gormley had found the time to talk to them. skittering over the stone flags of Nathan's mind. The There was only one way to find out, and the sooner the psychic aether seethed with them: like the static hiss better. issuing from a coastguard's radio as he listens for Mayday Nathan cast about with his metaphysical mind, messages on a stormy night. Except these whispers were discovering nearby presences in the aether of the that message: the terrified SOS of the teeming dead. Not beyond. These could only be people who had died close sent out to the Necroscope but to each other - like the by, perhaps in the hospital overhead, whose spirits yet hoarse, questioning whispers of frightened children attached to this place. He would make his first overtures to trapped in a dark place - which Nathan overheard because them; of all the dead, they were surely the closest to the he had a walkie-talkie, his deadspeak, but couldn't answer Nightmare Zone. because they were too afraid to switch their set to receive. In this, despite that he'd been born with his talent, He fine-tuned his talent to listen to these tumultuous Nathan showed his inexperience, his immaturity as a spirit voices, which would scare any other man half to Necroscope. For he was already aware of others who death, if any other were able to hear them at all. But had died even closer to this place, which he nevertheless Nathan Kiklu, or Keogh as it now transpired, had listened failed to take into account as he concentrated his dead- to voices such as these all of his life, from childhood. speak thoughts directly into the aether. And whispering And he knew that their owners were harmless ... mainly. so quietly that only he himself could hear it, he said: He also knew, however, that to interrupt would be to 'Whoever you are, I need your help. I need you to silence them, causing them to withdraw as from a leper. help me now, so that I can help you later. My name is It was the legacy of his father, come down to him in Nathan, and I'm ... alive.' two worlds. For in the end Harry had been a monster, and WHAT? WHO? NATHAN? . . . LIAR' the dead of both worlds had feared him. Or rather, they It was like the shout of a giant or some furious had feared his necromantic talents. Likewise they madman in Nathan's mind, causing him to start to his feet. But of course he was the only one who heard it, and out in the corridor Geoff Smart wasn't even looking. 650 651 The empath's talent wasn't automatic but must be tentative mental probe towards Nathan's aura . . . A induced, like a kind of self-hypnotism. Living with his mistake! own thoughts and emotions for the moment, he wasn't WHAT? DO YOU HAVE FRIENDS HERE? AND much concerned with anyone else's. And anyway, YOU THINK THEY CAN HELP YOU? THINK AGAIN, midnight was still a long way off. Smart leaned against a TOD PRENTISSSS! wall and lit a cigarette. Smart couldn't hear Scofield's words but instead felt But in the morgue: them - like hammer blows to his psyche, rocking him on The temperature had dropped again, plummeted, and his heels - as the steel doors to the morgue slammed shut Nathan's breath plumed as before. And again the short in his face. And: 'Nathan!' he found breath to yell. hairs on the back of his neck stood erect as he took slow, 'Nathan!' But Nathan was on the other side of the doors. careful steps towards the open doors. For he could Trask and Garvey came running. The telepath was actually feel the presence there in the room with him, and more composed now, but the left side of his face was knew that its powers were as awesome as his own. But alive with jerks and twitches as his nerves continued to where his were harmless, its could only be -devastating! play him up a little. 'What now?' Trask's voice was STOP! The command brought him up short, panting. It hoarse with dread. was as if he were back in Turgosheim beyond the Great 'Nathan's in there,' Smart gasped. 'But he isn't alone. Red Waste, in Runemanse, and the Seer Lord Maglore of There's something - someone - in there with him. It has the Wamphyri had spoken to him; such had been the to be John Scofield.' force of that single word. But still it had not dawned on Trask tried the doors. 'Locked.' him who issued it. And: 'Impossible.' Garvey shook his head. 'I opened them, 'Who are you?' he whispered. and I still have the keys.' Then he realized what he'd YOU KNOW ME. AND I KNOW YOU - TOD said. Nothing was impossible here, for this was the PRENTISSSS.' The last word sounded in Nathan's mind Nightmare Zone. as a protracted hiss, filled with menace, loathing. And 'Give me the keys,' Trask told him, and a moment now indeed he knew who the presence was. later he had a key in the lock. But as he tried to turn 'John Scofield!' it... And another voice, half-wondering, asked: 'What?' . . . It was as if a cold, invisible, iron-hard hand It was Geoff Smart, silhouetted like a wraith in his own yanked his own hand aside - and snapped off the key in cigarette smoke and a swirling, luminous mist just the lock! And the key-ring fell jangling to the floor. beyond the heavy steel doors, drawing deeply on his Down there, streaming out from a crack under the door, a smoke and rubbing his hands together briskly, then more faintly luminous mist began to lap about their feet, slowly, as he stared at Nathan where once more he inched causing them to move uneasily, as if they stood in ice- towards the corridor. But now the empath knew that cold water. something was wrong, and reached out a Then Garvey said: 'He's talking to someone. I can 652 653 sense it, feel it, but I can't hear it. It isn't telepathy but ... Those things were quite different. For as the steel doors deadspeak.' had slammed shut, closing Nathan in and condemning 'Well, that's what he's in there for,' Trask rasped. 'But him to darkness, then the presence of John Scofield had we're not supposed to be locked out here. Telekinesis loomed that much larger, until it could be felt everywhere locked this door. And yes, it has to be John Scofield. He's about. And even as Nathan realized his predicament, so early this time. Nathan must have brought him on.' And the dead madman's voice came back again, so powerful as turning to Smart: 'Take the keys. Go round to the side of to be painful in the echoing caverns of the Necroscope's the hospital. Maybe you'll find a key that will open a mind: door. If not, then break something, a window, door, TOD PRENTISS ... PRENTISS ... PRENT1SSSS! anything. But get into the hospital and down to the 'Wrong!' Nathan whispered. 'I'm not Tod Prentiss. My morgue.' name is Nathan. It's Nathan ... Keogh.' Keogh, yes! Let And as Smart raced off back along the corridor and Scofield know who he was, how he could speak to the out of sight: 'Come on.' Trask took Garvey's elbow. 'Don't I dead. Let them all know that he was the son of the first recall seeing a bench back there in the inquiries room? true Necroscope. Surely there were friends other than Sir One of those old-fashioned oak benches that weigh half a Keenan Gormley out there? KEOGH? KEOGH! ton? It will make one hell of a battering-ram!' KEOOOOGH-- NECHOSCOPE/ And for the first time They ran down the mist-wreathed corridor, leaving Scofield's demented deadspeak voice contained something Nathan alone in the morgue with the unquiet spirit of other than malice and madness. So that Nathan pressed his John Scofield. For the moment, it was as much as they momentary advantage: could do . . . 'Nathan Keogh, yes. I'm the son of Harry Keogh, and your friends in E-Branch have asked me to help you. In the morgue, Nathan began to see things. He knew that They couldn't reach you but I can. And I'm the only one they weren't there, but just like Garvey before him he who can. That's why you have to listen to me.' saw them. The triple-stacked container unit with its rows Thickening, the poltergeist mist had taken on a lot of sliding, refrigerated cabinets; the filing system in a more of weird luminosity; sufficient now to light the corner recess; a pair of medical trolleys with white entire morgue with an eerie blue foxfire. And the morgue rubber sheets thrown over them. A scene from the past, really was a morgue. Its contents appeared real now; not brought into being by the flux of John Scofield's dead wavering, insubstantial and half opaque, but solid as life. thoughts. For a ghost doesn't have to be revenant of John Scofield's hatred made it real, as his enhanced sentience; it can also be of a place, an object, a thing telekinetic powers prepared the killing ground for a new other than human, other than once-alive. In this sense assault upon his dead enemy. the phantasmal items which Nathan saw were ghosts, NATHAN KEOOOOGH . . . His deadspeak voice but ghosts of the morgue itself, not its inhabitants. breathed again - breathed the mist, which swirled about That was only what he saw, however, while what he the room and filled its corners, bringing them to heard and felt... 654 655 glowing life. And: NO, YOU WOULD TRY TO TRICK THAT PUZZLES ME IS WHY THEY SHOULD ME, the voice continued. IF YOU ARE KEOGH, YOU CONCERN THEMSELVES WITH YOU AT ALL! WOULD DEPRIVE ME OF MY PREY. AND IF YOU 'And what about you?' Nathan found courage to answer. ARE NOT KEOGH, THEN YOU ARE PREN-TISSSS! 'Don't you care about the Great Majority?' (His words TOD PRENTISS, YESSSS, AND YOU ARE AFRAID went out to all the dead now.) 'Are you so unfeeling of OF DYING . . . AGAIN! NOW LET ME THINK. HOW them? Don't you know how you're harming them, how HAVE I KILLED YOU? IN HOW MANY WAYS? much damage you can do? And not only to the dead but to 'I'm Keogh,' Nathan insisted. 'Nathan Keogh. How the living? You mentioned a trump card. But would you else am I talking to you, if not in deadspeak? Who else play the "last trump", John?' (Nathan had watched an E- but a Necroscope could do it?' Branch Duty Officer playing patience one night; he knew THE DEAD CAN DO IT. ANY ONE OF THEM what cards were, and he'd learned the meaning of 'the last CAN. BUT YOU KNOW THAT, DON'T YOU, trump' the first time he spoke to Keenan Gormley, for PRENTISS? FOR YOU ARE DEAD, AND WOULD deadspeak often conveys more than is actually said.) REMAIN DEAD - EXCEPT I DRIVE YOU BACK WHAT ARE YOU SAYING? And again there was other INTO A SEMBLANCE OF LIFE SO THAT I MAY than madness in the great voice. MY ARGUMENT IS WITH KILL YOU YET AGAIN. AS INDEED I INTEND TO YOU, TOD PRENTISS. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO KILL YOU YET AGAIN! WITH THE TEEMING DEAD - UNLESS THEY Feeling the dreadful intensity of Scofield's obsession - WOULD DENY ME MY REVENGE. AND his paranoia, which would not be denied by anything as CERTAINLY IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE simple as the truth - Nathan opened his deadspeak LIVING. THE LAST TRUMP? TO CALL UP THE channels wider yet. Now he must enlist the aid of the DEAD? BUT SURELY THAT'S YOUR PROVINCE, Great Majority, for his was only one voice and theirs 'NECROSCOPE'! The voice was caustic, full of sarcasm. were many. If he could only persuade them to talk to 'And yours.' Nathan was growing desperate, and still the him, perhaps he could convince Scofield of his truth. His dead ignored him. Or if not that - if they were beginning to thoughts were deadspeak, of course, and the madman had listen to him now - listening was all they were doing. 'It's heard them. your province, too. For you're the one who calls up Tod OH, CLEVER, SO CLEVER! BUT YOU WERE Prentiss out of death, to make him pay for what he did to CLEVER IN LIFE, TOO, ELSE YOU WOULD NEVER you and yours. Well, and perhaps you have the right, but HAVE LASTED SO LONG. BUT TELL ME THIS: IF why must all of the dead suffer? And what of the living?' YOU ARE IN 'TRUTH' THE NECROSCOPE, THEN TRICKERY.' Scofield bellowed. WORD GAMES! WHY DON'T THE DEAD TALK BACK TO YOU? OR MIND GAMES! BUT I WON'T PLAY THEM WITH ARE THEY SAVING THAT FOR LATER - THEIR YOU. YOU ARE GOING TO DIE - AGAIN AND TRUMP CARD' - WHEN EVERYTHING ELSE AGAIN AND AGAIN, TOD PRENTISSSS! FAILS? THE ONLY THING 656 657 ... NOT YET! Word games ... Putting his shoulder to the doors and leaning his weight Well, in a sense Scofield was right: it was a word game on them — like shoving at the face of a granite cliff, of sorts, and Nathan was good at them. The Mage of without moving it the smallest fraction of an inch - Runemanse himself had admitted as much. But this time Nathan felt the mist damp around his ankles; damp and . . . so much depended on the game that Nathan must use mobile ... and yet glutinous, too. Gluey... He looked down every word to maximum effect. And so he fell silent, to - consider his next move. - And saw that the floor was red! Six inches deep in The air in the morgue was freezing now, and it red! And Scofield's words came back to him: 'But have I throbbed almost audibly with a barely contained power drowned you in blood? Not yet!' that galvanized Nathan's hair into electrical life and raised Nathan sucked in air in a huge gasp, held it, thought for goose-flesh on his arms and back. It was at least five and a moment that his heart had stopped, that at the very least a half hours to midnight, and for all of that time the he was going to topple over, faint - and knew that that was power would be building. Surely it couldn't be contained. the last thing he could do. He daren't faint! For he was Not in one room. Not by one man. standing in blood up to his ankles, and felt it oozing, Meanwhile, he had inched his way slowly to the doors soaking through his trousers, socks, shoes. For a moment and now tried them. Useless; there was no give in them; he didn't believe it, but he could see it, feel it, smell it. they might as well be welded shut. And tendrils of blue- Blood! glowing mist were seeking him out, creeping across the On Starside, in Turgosheim, the Wamphyri had a floor and weaving through the bitterly cold air to where saying: the blood is the life. But here it was or could be his breath plumed frosty white. While starting up again in the death. Dead blood, like the terrible juice of a thousand his head: slaughterhouses, conjured by the telekinetic mind of a HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I KILLED YOU, TOD dead man to slap in sluggish, scarlet wavelets at Nathan's PRENTISS? NOT ENOUGH, NOT NEARLY ENOUGH. ankles ... No, at his calves! For the lake of blood was AND IN HOW MANY WAYS? I HAVE CUT YOUR getting deeper by the second. THROAT WITH A RAZOR. BUT . . . HAVE I Galvanized, gasping for air, and barely managing to BURNED YOU? NO. I'VE DRIVEN NAILS INTO rein back on his horror, Nathan sloshed through this YOUR EYES, YOUR BRAIN. BUT HAVE I CRUSHED crimson stuff of nightmares - this stuff of the Nightmare YOUR SKULL WITH MY TELEKINESIS, OH SO Zone — to make for one of the surgical trolleys standing SLOWLY, UNTIL BRAIN FLUIDS TRICKLE FROM draped in its white rubber sheet. If it was real he would YOUR EARS LIKE THE YOLKS OF EGGS? NO. I'VE climb onto it, lift himself out of the blood. And if it wasn't GELDED YOU WITH A WHITE HOT POKER, real... then neither was the blood. DRIVING IT INTO THE STEAMING RAW HOLE OF But as he got there, so the rubber sheet bulked out, took WHAT WAS YOUR SEX. BUT HAVE I DROWNED on shape: the outline of a human body! And YOU IN BLOOD...? 658 659 speak, of course. A plague of dead men. Even Starside, suddenly sitting up - jerking erect like a puppet on a Turgosheim, was better than this. string, so that the sheet slipped to one side - the corpse turned its pale, white, silently screaming face to look at And suddenly Gormley was frantic in his mind. Nathan Nathan! Its throat was slashed ear to ear, and its wrists . . . are you giving in? But you mustn't! Your father never sliced through, and the dead blood was pouring from the gave in. He was a fighter to the end. wounds in a flood! Nathan wanted to laugh, cry, shout his frustration: 'No!' Nathan shouted, shoving spastically at the trolley symptoms of hysteria, which finally he recognized. and sending it rolling sluggishly through the deep red Somehow he controlled himself, said: Harry Keogh could flood, its gruesome burden lolling, then toppling into a afford to fight. His army fought for him. The dead were lake of its own making. And all a fantasy, a nightmare his friends, his troops. J have nothing, only Harry's conceived by John Scofield where his dead mind thought Wood. As for his 'talent': what good is that if the Great its telekinetic thoughts in the heart of the Nightmare Majority won't let me use it? Zone. But a fantasy that could kill, stop a man's heart, But they've been watching, listening, Gormley told freeze the very blood in his veins - or cause him to drown him. You opened yourself up to them, and they entered. in it! They heard your argument with John Scofield, your plea A fantasy that was rapidly expanding. on their behalf, and on behalf of the Jiving. They've felt The other trolley was similarly occupied with a the warmth of your deadspeak thoughts and know that silently screaming, blood-gushing corpse, and the you're on their side, Nathan. And now they're ready to aluminium caskets had floated free of their refrigerated help you. Indeed, they've been helping you, or trying their bank, to drift like metal boats on a crimson lake. And hardest. from within them a frenzied hammering of corpse hands Nathan felt a new strength, new hope. Gormley had a on vibrating panels, the lids thrown violently open, persuasive personality. The dead are he/ping me? How? corpses trying to stand up, capsizing their grotesque In what way? vessels and tipping themselves into the ghastly flood. Scofield's wife and son are locked in their own terror, The blood was up to Nathan's thighs. He waded to the as they've been since Tod Prentiss murdered them. But filing cabinets and climbed them, and sat in the corner now, as the Great Majority make every effort to comfort with his back to the walls, watching the staggering them, they are coming out of it. They were in trauma, corpses with their slit throats and wrists where they Nathan, beyond our reach - and perhaps more impor- gradually submerged in the ever-deepening tide. And tantJy, beyond John Scofield's reach! They should be able without even realizing it, suddenly the Necroscope found to provide the element of control which is ah1 he's himself rocking to and fro and moaning to himself. The Jacking. Together with his family, Scofield will be whole human mind can only take so much ... again. Nathan.' It was Sir Keenan Gormley's horrified dead- NOOOOOU! Scofield was back again, more furious speak voice. Nathan, this isn't the way to go! than ever. TRICKERY! YOU TORTURED THEM IN Another dead man, Nathan thought, which was dead- LIFE, AND NOW YOU WOULD TORTURE THEM 661 660 IN DEATH. AH, YOU CAN FOOL THE TEEMING Garvey leaned back weakly against the wall; he mopped DEAD, TOD PRENTISS, BUT YOU CAN NEVER his brow with a trembling hand, felt the impaired flesh of FOOL ME! NOW DROWN, BASTARD, IN THE his face jerking uncontrollably. In the doorway to the BLOOD OF THE DEAD! hospital basement, Geoff Smart tottered like an infant; And suddenly it was raining red! sick and completely disorientated, he bumped left and Nathan cast a disbelieving, horrified glance at the low right against the uprights of the wide door frame. But there was no blood anywhere. Not a drop to be seen. ceiling just overhead, watched crimson cracks leaking first a splash, a trickle, then streams of blood. The cracks Finally the three espers pulled themselves together, and Trask and Smart entered the morgue. Nathan was seated joined up to form a spiderweb whose scarlet threads zig- in a corner ashen-faced, gasping for air and hugging his zagged rapidly, wildly across the broad plaster expanse; knees. And the way he turned his head to stare all about, it threatening blotches and blisters formed as the ceiling was obvious that his disorientation was the worst of all. . . bulged under the weight of blood; the plaster tore open with a soggy, ripping sound like wet, rotten meat, letting In his time, Ben Trask had seen and been through a lot. down its load into the morgue. And washed from his Also, he was the human lie-detector and knew that what he was looking at now was the plain truth. First to recover perch, Nathan went under. himself fully, he went straight to Nathan. 'Son? Are you Then ... OK?' ... The doors burst open! The twin-door leading to the Nathan could breathe easy again, and as Trask helped police station, and a moment later the door to the him to his feet he asked, 'What ... what happened?' He basement of the hospital. But it was as if they were forced was shivering and damp; not with blood, but his own cold open, from within. And in fact they had been, by the sweat. sheer weight of blood! Or by the weight of the Mind that 'Out there?' Trask looked over his shoulder at the had created the illusion. silhouetted door space. The glowing blue mist had In the corridor, Trask and Garvey were knocked off disappeared along with the blood. 'We've been trying like their feet, hurled back along the cell-lined corridor hell to get in. That's about all that's happened. And in clinging to a bench. Likewise in the hospital: Geoff here?' Smart's legs seemed cut out from under him as he was Nathan felt dehydrated. He knew Trask had brought sent flying, slapped down, drenched in blood. coffee, sugar and milk with him in the car; all the It happened ... and it was over! As quickly as that. makings. And still shivering, he said: 'I'll tell you all And nothing had changed, except the time. about it. . . but first I need a drink.' Out in the corridor, Ben Trask and Paul Garvey issued Smart came to help Trask with Nathan. 'I was with you simultaneous cries of astonishment. They dropped their right at the end,' he said. 'God, I don't know what it was bench battering-ram, which narrowly missed Trask's feet, about, but it must have been the worst nightmare anyone causing him to exclaim and jump back a little. Then, off ever suffered!' balance, he sat down abruptly on the softly gleaming tiles - but not in a pool of blood. 663 662 extension of a brief episode into something that had Paul Garvey waited out in the corridor; not cowardice, lasted for well over four hours. 'What?' Smart wasn't able just good sense. It wouldn't be clever for all four of to accept it. 'We were moving in slow motion or them to be in the morgue together. But as the others something?' came out, he said: 'I was with you, too. Or I would have 'Don't concern yourself with it,' Trask told him. 'It can been - if they had let me.' drive you crazy trying to figure it out. It's just another one They?' Trask looked at him. of those weird things that can happen in the Nightmare 'I tried to reach Nathan just as we were about to start Zone.' using the bench on the door,' Garvey explained. 'But But Paul Garvey said: 'It does pose a problem, though. there was a telepathic shield round his mind: "static", as In that we only have sixty minutes left to Zero Hour ...' we would call it in the Branch. Except . . . it was cold, Finally the static broke up, E-Branch got through to cold stuff. Nothing living created it.' them, and David Chung's slightly tinny, worried voice 'Must have been Scofield,' Trask nodded. said: 'Sunray, this is Echo Hotel Quebec. Signals, over?' But Nathan said, 'Not necessarily. For there are tele- 'Echo Hotel Quebec, this is Sunray,' Trask answered. paths among the dead, too. And Keenan Gormley told 'Signals OK ... but let's junk the radio procedure. We me they're trying to help us now.' haven't the time.' 'By blocking your mind?' Trask raised an eyebrow. Chung's sigh of relief was clearly audible, and then his Nathan shrugged. 'Perhaps by protecting it from the question: 'Is everything OK? I've been trying to get you worst of what Scofield could do. And if so I'm glad, for for the last hour. I was about ready to send a car over. Most what he did was bad enough!' of E-Branch has reported for duty tonight. We're there They were back in the Duty Room. Smart made coffee with you right now... in mind if not in body.' Chung was while Nathan told what had happened to him. As he one of only a handful of men in the entire world who could finished his story there came a burst of static from a say that sort of thing and actually mean it. pocket radio Trask had left sitting on the reports desk. 'We've had a few problems,' Trask said. 'But it's cool 'Hasn't worked since we got here,' Trask commented. now for the moment. You can give us a buzz every ten 'Else I might have tried ordering up some cutting gear minutes or so, but don't send the cavalry! And that's an for that door back there ...' Then he frowned. 'I told order. There are more than enough of us in the firing line them not to bother us until 11:00 p.m., and then to stay already.' in close contact. So why are they trying to get through 'It's just that Zek wasn't able to get through to Paul or now?' Nathan,' Chung said. 'And I couldn't locate you, despite White as a sheet, Garvey answered: 'Because it's that I knew where you were. None of us was getting 11:00 p.m., that's why!' He was staring disbelievingly at anything! You were swamped with static. And ... his watch, his eyes round as saucers. naturally, we were worried.' And finally they knew about the time. All of their watches told the same story: a story of warped time, the 'Every ten minutes,' Trask repeated. 'Meanwhile ... well, you can wish us luck.' He broke contact. 665 664 Smart wanted to know: 'So why has everything jug in which Smart had boiled water for the coffee. It suddenly gone quiet now?' was no longer plugged in, but the water had started to Trask glanced at him, noticed how drawn he was boil. And Garvey was staring at his watch again. Gape- looking. All of them were. And Nathan's clothes didn't mouthed, he showed the others: the second hand was fit too well. Trask would be willing to bet that Nathan sweeping round the dial! had lost seven or eight pounds in weight. Returning his Nathan flew down the steps to the corridor of softly gaze to Smart he said: 'It must have taken a hell of a lot shining tiles, and raced along it to the morgue. He didn't out of John Scofield to put on a show like that. Now want to go in but he must. Too much depended on it: the he'll be recuperating, regenerating himself. But that was peace and sanity of the living and the dead of two only the start of it. The finale comes at 12:00 p.m.' worlds. And behind him as he entered the morgue, the Paul Garvey's face was as expressionless as the doors slammed shut again. unfeeling flesh it was made of, as he put in: 'And if time PRENTISS! John Scofield's mad, awesome dead-speak narrows down again? What then?' voice was back in his mind. TOD PRENTISSSS! And Trask shrugged, but in no way negligently. 'You tell Nathan's hackles rose as he skidded to a halt in the blue- me.' misted room and felt again the telekinetic aura of the Nathan finished his coffee, got to his feet, looked at dead man, a tangible force in the midnight morgue. his friends. 'I almost got through to them,' he said. To 'Not Prentiss,' he answered in a gasp. 'My name's the teeming dead. I need to speak to Keenan Gormley Nathan. Nathan Keogh. Why don't you listen to the again, and through him to the Great Majority. Even to dead, John? They'll tell you who I am. Why don't you John Scofield. Especially to him. But I need privacy, and listen to Sir Keenan Gormley? Before you were a member quiet. And I only have an hour ...' of E-Branch, he was the head of that organization. He Trask was on his feet at once. 'You'll go back in was my father's friend, and now he's mine. I know there?' because I can talk to him, even as I'm talking to you. I Nathan's turn to shrug. 'That's where it is, Ben. Didn't know because I'm the Necroscope. Would you harm me, you name it yourself? The ... what, epicentre? John? The only friend you have left in the living world? Whatever's coming, it's coming out of there. John Scofield The son of the man who taught the teeming dead how to is in there. And his wife and son, finally willing to speak to one another?' accept what's happened to them. Even Tod Prentiss, WHEN I SEEK YOU OUT (Scofield ignored Nathan's hiding somewhere in there. And all the Great Majority, pleading), I FIND YOU - ALWAYS. YOU HIDE prepared to talk to me at last. They need me now. And if FROM ME, KEEP QUIET AND STILL, CLOSE I'm ever going to get back to Sunside, I need them. So YOUR MIND, BUT I ALWAYS FIND YOU. THIS there's no other way. I have to go back in.' TIME I'VE FOUND YOU AGAIN, BUT YOU Trask opened his mouth to make an answer but WOULD TRICK ME INTO BELIEVING THAT YOU nothing came out. His eyes went instead to the electric ARE SOME OTHER, THIS KEOGH. EXCEPT I 666 667 KNOW YOUR DECEPTION. HOW CAN YOU BE ANY him in an imaginary fall, or turn him to a cinder in OTHER BUT TOD PRENTISS? I'VE SHUT THE imaginary fires? TEEMING DEAD OUT, FOR THEY WOULD ONLY It was, yes: possible to crush Nathan with the power of his MEDDLE. AND THE ONE VOICE - THE ONE telekinetic mind, and to move the fires of inner earth to LOATHSOME BEING - I SEEK, IS YOU. OF ALL THE surround him with their heat, which is such that it will GREAT MAJORITY, YOURS IS THE SINGLE VOICE I melt steel. Nathan was losing his balance. He slipped, fell, ALLOW MYSELF TO HEAR. WHEREFORE . . . I . . . clung to the disintegrating masonry as more debris went KNOW ... YOU ... TOD PRENTISSSS! tumbling into the mental pit which Scofield had created. Cracks zig-zagged across the floor; the room shook But: with a rumbling rage of its own; the floor fell away John! (A woman's deadspeak voice, sighing, soft, tender. beneath Nathan's feet, leaving him standing on a But tired, too. So very tired.) John, come home now. crumbling jut of tiled masonry as the walls extended Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, stop it now themselves downwards, changing from brick and plaster and come home. We're ... here, John. And we're not afraid to rough-hewn rock. He teetered this way and that as any more. The ... the dead have helped us to overcome. more tiles and masonry fell away, spinning into the blue- They can heJp you, too. So pJease come home now. Oh, it's glowing deeps. And down there, far below - red-roaring a strange sort of home, 1 know. But where we are - the fire! Its vengeful heat warmed the shaft like a breath of three of us together, you, me, Andrew -that's home ... hell. LYNN...? You have the wrong man, John/ It was Sir Keenan Now Scofield heard. But did he believe? LYNN? His Gormley's frantic deadspeak voice, homing in on the voice gonged as before, but its tone was different: awesome Centre of Power that was Scofield's incorporeal wondering as opposed to furious. And then . . . a groan! mind. You don't know me but I know you. I know of you. BUT WOULD THEY USE YOU, TOO, TO CONFUSE AJI of the teeming dead know you, and if you persist in ME AND DELAY MY JUSTICE? The pain, sorrow and what you're doing the Jiving will know of you, too. anguish in that voice would be enough for twenty grieving Indeed, you may even destroy their world! men. ARE YOU . . . ARE YOU A PART OF IT? If Scofield heard him at all, he ignored him. But to Part of what, John? There is no plot, my love. But j u s t Nathan: HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I KILLED YOU? as Tod Prentiss is in hiding from you, so we've been IN HOW MANY WAYS? A GOOD MANY, I KNOW. hiding, too - from the truth/ And so have you. We've been BUT HAVE I CRUSHED YOU IN A FALL, AND hiding from each other. But now it's time to come together, BURNED YOU IN HELL'S OWN FIRES? John, and it's also time for you to come home. More of the tiles fell from the rim of Nathan's rapidly Lynn Scofield had been doing all right until she diminishing refuge, until he knew that the projecting mentioned Prentiss's name. But that had been a huge tongue of masonry couldn't hold him up for very much longer. But was it really possible for Scofield to crush 668 669 mistake. HOME? (The rage was back in her husband's fear - cried: No, NO, NOOOOO!!! The scream of a dead voice.) I SHOULD COME HOME NOW, WHEN I maniac, yes. Of a trapped, rabid animal. Tod Prentiss's HAVE HIM WHERE I WANT HIM? HE DESTROYED scream. MY HOME AS I NOW DESTROY HIM! Nathan, falling slow as a leaf, yet hurtling to his doom The lone fang of rock broke away from the wall with for all that, 'saw' the face of Tod Prentiss. As it had been, Nathan still clinging to it. Turning end over end, he felt then in various stages of languid, loathsome corruption, the rush of heated air from the core of volcanic lava and finally as it was now. He saw it first bloated with evil: below him, and saw the sheer unscalable walls go rushing red and round, its eyes too small, too close together over a past. Then .. . blob of a nose, loose, fleshy lips, and a receding chin. The ... The pace slowed down! He continued to plunge -but face of a beast, which leered even without trying. Then he - oh - so - slooooowly! He floated, a feather with the saw the mouth fall open and the leer turn to a look of weight of a man. And he knew how, why. terror, horror as the flesh began to slough. The lips and It was the teeming dead. If John Scofield could do it, cheeks puffing up, bursting and turning to rot; the eyes so could they ... Their massed minds ... The joint effort of glazing over, sinking back into sulphur yellow orbits, a million dead souls, who suddenly knew Nathan for his dribbling sick grey fluids from red rims; the nose real value, just as they had known his father in the early collapsing in upon itself, livid flesh peeling back and a days of Harry Keogh's earthly innocence. crater of jagged bone showing through. Finally the jaws And now they turned their single deadspeak voice on gaping wide in a dead scream, as maggots erupted from John Scofield, telling him: the purple rot and quickly fretted the whole to a skull! John, we've found Tod Prentiss for you, driven him out Nathan saw it, and so did John Scofield. of hiding. And we'll give him to you willingly this one THAT . . . IS TOD PRENTISS! He knew it for a fact. last time, in order to prove how wrong you are. But if you WHICH CAN ONLY MEAN THAT THIS ONE - let Nathan die, you'll be damned by the dead for ever! (suddenly Scofield's deadspeak voice was shocked, full of You of all men know what a crime it is: to take the life of the knowledge of its own error) - THAT HE -IS someone much loved. Kill Tod Prentiss again if you NATHAN KEOGH! must, but not this man. For Nathan Keogh is the The floor was back under Nathan's feet, but he felt that Necroscope, John! He's the light in what's left of the he was still falling. Crumpling to the cold tiles, then 'lives' of each and every one of us. Without his father, hugging to them, he sobbed his exhaustion into the cool what would we ever have been? And without him ... who air of the morgue - can say? - And saw that he lay in a pool of blue-glowing mist, YOU HAVE . . . FOUND TOD PRENTISS? Scofield's and knew that it wasn't over yet... voice was uncertain. THEN SHOW HIM TO ME. GIVE HIM TO M E . . . And another voice - terrified, utterly mindless with 670 Nathan couldn't say. But he knew which side he was on. And he was even more sure when suddenly Tod Prentiss VI Confrontation - rounded on him and grunted: Cunt! Rabble-rouser! This dumb bastard thought he Conclusion — Connections had me — untiJ you and your dead friends convinced him otherwise! Then Nathan saw that while Prentiss's basic emotion was definitely fear, indeed terror - of John Scofield presumably - he'd managed to suppress it to allow for a Trask and the others were battering at the doors again, bout of vicious, homicidal rage. Survival, Nathan calling out to Nathan, asking if he was all right. He was supposed. For during his life of theft, rape, and finally aware of them — of their voices, strangely distant, as if murder, Prentiss had been a survivor. As in life, so in they reached him from a very long way away - and also death; his instincts were unchanged. Prentiss was still aware that he wasn't alone in the eerie blue glow of the the survivor. He had survived ... how many of Scofield's place. There were ... combatants here, too. For this was to attempts to be rid of him? In his incorporeal state he always would survive them, for men only die the true be the final confrontation. death once. Combatants, and an audience. But never such a silent audience in the history of competition. For they were all Nathan's thoughts were deadspeak, and Tod Prentiss of them dead. As were the phantoms they had come to heard them, 'naturally'. watch. Dead right, shithead! Living men only die the true The previous inhabitants of this place sat on their death once. And you're alive, right? For the moment metal caskets in a ring that encircled the figures of two you're alive, anyway ... you dumb fuck! Prentiss's men: John Scofield and Tod Prentiss. Nathan could tell sudden lunge in Nathan's direction might have taken the them apart from the start, for he knew what Prentiss Necroscope by surprise, but not John Scofield. And not had looked like; his bestial face was unmistakable, and the ring of sad, silent observers. his squat, froglike figure - hunched now in a defensive As Prentiss came loping - leaning menacingly forward, crouch, or shrunken into itself in fear - seemed likewise to with his long arms reaching and his wet lips drawn back cry his identity. Grave-dirt clung in clods to his hairy from straining, grimacing yellow teeth - so the corpses body. moved to intercept. They weren't creaking, groaning As for John Scofield: he was of medium height, cadavers but bodies of the freshly dead, and in these sparsely-fleshed, clean-limbed. Both men were naked, metaphysical moments of Scofield's and the Great and the contrast was stark: darkness against light, good Majority's creation they were 'alive' and mobile as life against evil. Whether it was an accurate physical itself. Blocking the way, they turned Prentiss back, representation or simply Scofield and his mortal (or brought him face to face with Scofield again. And seeing immortal?) enemy as seen from Scofield's point of view, Scofield's cold, stony expression, Prentiss 672 673 shrank down, whimpered like a whipped dog, and backed Sunside had their own ways of dealing with such off. He knew why he'd been called up, why he was threats. here: to die again. And he knew who would be his Remembering those ways, he now asked Scofield: executioner. Where is Prentiss now? His body, I mean? Then Scofield said: What does that matter? Scofield turned his head to I wanted to show you, Nathan, what I've been up look at the Necroscope, at which Prentiss climbed to against and why I can't stop. Myself, wife and child, his feet again and once more adopted his defensive or we're here in an afterworld devoid of body, but not of threatening crouch. mind. And I for one refuse to share it with such as this! Scofield shrugged. He was buried close by, else I One way or the other I will be rid of him, but unti] then I might have difficulty calling him up. His remains are can't stop. For the moment - perhaps a brief moment — still there, in the ground, but he is here. This is him. I suppose, I hope, you would call me sane. But I know that Using deadspeak thoughts and pictures, Nathan showed sooner or later the very thought of this creature still what he intended - at which Prentiss went wild! For he existing, in however limited a capacity, is bound to drive was able to see, hear and understand Nathan's me mad again. deadspeak scenario as well as Scofield and the rest of Scofield paused as Tod Prentiss suddenly stopped the teeming dead. And even knowing what his fate was whining, drew himself upright, shouted a curse and to be - or more properly because he knew - his instinct sprang at his enemy head on, jaws gaping as if to bite for survival rose up in him one last time. him, savage him like a mad dog. Scofield paused and He hurled himself headlong at Scofield again, and held up a hand; simply that ... but it was as if he'd again was met by the wall of the other's mind. Except erected a wall. that this time it wrapped around him and folded him in, A telekinetic wall that Prentiss slammed into, enveloping him like a fly in a spider's cocoon: the flattened against, and slid down groaning to the floor. invisible cocoon of a dead man's telekinesis enhanced At which Nathan remembered something, indeed by his undying hatred. But unlike a spider's cocoon, several things: this one was designed to contain a malignancy. In life Scofield's true talent had been telekinesis, and it Then, slowly but surely, John Scofield crushed Prentiss still was. The power to move things at will, with the and shrank him down. The ectoplasm which was mind alone. The power to build an invisible wall, or Prentiss's 'body' assumed a compressed, spherical shape, visible spirits from the memories and thoughts and in which the grotesquely liquid contents had his dreams (or nightmares) of what had been. The power to features, but features which gradually melted into the crush, enclose ... contain? Such power that the ebb and globular blob of the whole. And such was the efficacy flow of its field produced those 'poltergeist' effects of Scofield's telekinetic bubble of pure thought that as it which threatened the sanity of a world. Well, and the shrank, so Tod Prentiss's frantic screams shrank with it. dead were sometimes a threat in Nathan's world, too, The process wasn't necromancy; it involved no 'pain' and the undead even more so. But the Travellers of 674 675 as such, only the terror of absolute finality. Prentiss's deadspeak mind. What you promised, do it now. For once terror. And search as he might, Nathan could find no I'm spent it will be a long time before 1 can build up to pity within himself for the subject of this, John Scofield's anything like this again. final exorcism. For that is what it was: the casting out Nathan saw how close to exhaustion he was. And of a devil, the removal of a morbid tumour which had now, speaking out loud to the teeming dead: 'Help him! infected the flesh of the living but would no more Give him all the help you can. Hold Prentiss until I can suppurate in the minds of the dead. Let it be a warning see to it, or all this is for nothing.' to all such: death is not the end, and it isn't the end of They understood, added the 'weight' of their incorporeal justice. minds to Scofield's and helped him cram the pulsing green Within the thought-bubble Prentiss continued to shrink. glow which was Prentiss into an even smaller space; in His outline was completely spherical now, domed head the end into no space at all, merely a nucleus of sick sliding into bloodhound jowls, into hunched shoulders, green radiation ... which Nathan plucked from the air into fat arms and vast flat hands which enclosed a bulb and put in his pocket! stomach, hips and groin that crushed down on It was as easy as that. He could do it - he was the only concertinaed legs and monstrously curving, crumpled one who could do it - because he was the Necro-scope, feet. And as the bubble shrank so any semblance of life because to him death and everything connected with it is was likewise diminished; what flesh-tones had been different. And now that the Great Majority had played present disappeared and were replaced by a green their part, it was up to him to see it through. rottenness, the evil light of Tod Prentiss's soul, The dead and their casket seats faded into blue mist concentrated within a small place and shining that much which itself faded into nothingness; the room darkened, brighter, or so much more lividly. but momentarily, before the doors crashed open; Trask The telekinetic sphere of containment was less than and the others stood framed in the dim light from the eighteen inches in diameter now; shrinking more yet it corridor, their breathing making grey funnels in the cold gave a last, frantic wriggle, like a soap bubble disturbed air. And from some near-distant place in the quiet city, the by a current of air, so that for a moment Nathan chimes of midnight rang out, penetrating even here. thought Prentiss was about to break out. But no; he had But at last, no less than the city, the Nightmare Zone tried, certainly, but it was his last desperate attempt. was quiet too .. . Scofield's talent was too strong, too terrible to resist. And down went the bubble, smaller and smaller, and In the Duty Room, Nathan wasted no time. 'Prentiss Prentiss's screams, still furious, less than whispers on was buried quite close to here.' the psychic aether. Until at last they were inaudible. That's right,' Trask nodded. 'Is it important?' Then: 'Yes,' Nathan answered curtly. 'We have to dig him I don't know ... how Jong . . . I can hold it together, up and burn him - and tonight!' 'But Scofield said, his own voice small now in Nathan's -' 676 677 He carried an earthenware urn, which suddenly he 'No buts, not if you want to be rid of the Nightmare held out at arm's length. Zone forever. Listen, time to explain later. But right now 'What. ..?' Trask said. ... can it be arranged?' But Nathan was talking to someone else now. John, There were few things that the Head of E-Branch ore you sure? This is what you want, right? couldn't arrange. 'Yes, if I can get to a telephone.' Oh, yes. The answer came back at once. And it has to 'Then let's get to one ...' be now. Whatever power I have left, it will only j u s t suffice. I know it. I drained myself keeping Prentiss in his The exhumation of Tod Prentiss was a speedy and less place until you could scatter him far and wide. And now than dignified affair, and his cremation in an industrial it's for me to find a better place for my family. But even if furnace at an engineering plant on the outskirts of the we don't make it, if we're scattered on the winds, we'll be city took place without ceremony - except for one small together at the end and at peace with ourselves. We are at incident. Just before the bodybag went into the fire, Nathan peace with ourselves, Nathan, thanks to you. And now . . . stepped forward and unzipped it six inches along one side. do it. And taking some unseen thing from his pocket, which Nathan did it: dropped the urn, which crashed down couldn't be seen by anyone but him, he thrust it deep into onto a red brick herringbone pathway and shattered. the bag where it belonged. And for a moment there was a confusion of bouncing, Thus Tod Prentiss became one with his remains, and clattering pottery shards, and grey dust springing up in a was one with his ashes when they had cooled. cloud. Then - In the grey morning, the first three airplanes out of - The cloud drew itself together into some sort of Gatwick, and three more out of Heathrow, carried, along tenuous whole, which despite the graveyard's blustery with their more orthodox passengers, E-Branch agents crosswinds maintained a kind of cohesion as it rose up on a special mission: to disperse Prentiss's ashes across and made off in a single body across the perimeter wall, the world, scattering them far and wide, so that nothing up over the rooftops, and quickly vanished into the of him could ever come together again. distance. And: Also by first light, the remains of John and Lynn 'Gone,' said Nathan sadly, in a little while. Scofield, and those of their son Andrew, were exhumed Trask nodded, and croaked: 'Gone, yes. I'm not sure and cremated, under circumstances and in a manner what you've done, but -' which were very different. And in the Kensington Garden '- But we're sure it's for the best,' Zek finished for him. of Repose, Ben Trask, Zek Foener and Nathan stood with 'For the best, yes,' Nathan agreed. heads bowed as a short but solemn ceremony took place The best for the Jiving and the dead alike, Keenan ... Gormley sighed in Nathan's deadspeak mind. And the Later, when the three walked in the grounds of the dead know it. Nathan, you have what you wanted. place under a grey sky, Nathan told the others: This may You've made yourself a lot of new friends. Now be sure be strange. It may even frighten you a little, but it you use them wisely ... shouldn't worry you. And it is what they want.' 679 678 Trask arranged for Garvey and Smart to have a week off Then Zek had given Nathan's arm a squeeze and told duty, simply to rest up. Then he handed over his own him, 'But we'll get there. I know we will.. .' duties as Head of Branch to David Chung for a week, so that he could drive up to Scotland with Zek and Nathan. They went to see the gutted ruins of Harry Keogh's old It would give Nathan a break; Trask too, and Zek ... house on the outskirts of Bonnyrig, not far from would be with them. But in his heart of hearts, Trask Edinburgh. It was snowing when they got there, huge soft knew why he wanted her along. flakes, and an inch of snow lay on the garden or what had They stayed in Edinburgh for three days, where been a garden. Trask told Nathan how it had been: Nathan took great pleasure in standing in Princes Street 'There was no way we could let Harry alone, let him and looking up at the Castle on the Rock. 'Men built it!' live here; I mean here, in this world. But at the same time I he would whisper, awed by the thought. 'In Turgosheim it knew that your father was different in more ways than one. wouldn't be much; it doesn't seem a lot bigger than Oh, the Necroscope was Wamphyri, all right - was he Trollmanse, Lorn Halfstruck's stump of a stack in the ever! I saw him, spoke to him that night right here in this bottom of the gorge. But men built this!' garden, and I know what he was! But he wasn't the kind 'You should see the pyramids,' Zek had told him, who would simply give in and submit to his fate, and smiling. never to a fate as cruel as that. So I . . . gave him a chance. 'Or the Great Wall of China,' Trask had put in. E-Branch was out to get him; the Opposition were waiting 'Or the Empire State Building!' Zek had finished it, as for him at the Per-chorsk Gate; even the Great Majority was her wont. 'Men have built a good many things.' had forsaken him, but I trusted him. Looking back on it, Nathan had frowned and given his head a shake. 'Not you would be justified in believing I was out of my mind. on Sunside, they haven't.' But on the other hand, well, who would have known the 'Because you've been held back,' Zek had reasoned truth of it better than I? At least I knew the truth of the with him. 'I've been there and I know. And I'm sure that moment: that Harry intended no harm. you know, too, Nathan. Your people are clever and even 'And the proof of that was to hand. He had deadly sophisticated in their way. But for the constant enemies right here, men who would kill him if they could. oppression of the Wamphyri...' One of them was a telepath, but warped and full of hate. '... But for them - oh, a lot of things,' he had answered. I'll make a long story short: the Necroscope disarmed him 'I wouldn't be here, for one.' and dragged him into the Mobius Continuum. Right then I And Trask had brought the conversation to a logical thought I'd made a dreadful mistake, that I would never see conclusion with: 'And so it can be seen that they might that man again. But no, Harry did no harm but a lot of good. well have brought about their own doom. You are Somehow, he took away Geoffrey Paxton's talent -which Szgany; when you go home you can give the Szgany Paxton had used in the worst possible way -made him weapons beyond their wildest dreams, and far beyond "ordinary", returned him snivelling but physically the comprehension of the Wamphyri. But that's then and unharmed to me here in the garden. this is now, and we've a way to go yet.' 680 681 'All this while his house - this old, burned-out place, was entirely coincidental when he shivered and said: The his last refuge on Earth - was blazing up in fire and cold is getting through to me. What do you say we get smoke, and while there wasn't a man or creature in the back to Edinburgh, the hotel, coffee and liqueurs?' entire world who Harry could call friend. Still he didn't As they passed through the ruins and got into Trask's betray us ..." car it started to snow more heavily. Grey figures came out of the opaque backdrop and climbed into a second 'Not quite true, Ben,' Zek put in, quietly. That he had car. Special Branch minders, they were never too far no friends, I mean. He had you, and he had me. I knew away... what he was and was frightened of him when he came to see me in Zante. Wolf and I - especially Wolf, a real wolf, a Szgany watchdog - we both knew. But the Driving through Bonnyrig towards Edinburgh, Nathan Necroscope and I went back ... oh, a long time, and I received a mental impression of a dog. A big black and was still his friend. Harry was Harry. So I took a white mongrel, all lolloping and friendly, floppy-eared, chance, too, and gave them shelter, him and his girl, and tongue lolling hot and wet. The sensation wasn't while he arranged their departure from this world. The telepathy or deadspeak but the next best thing, as if he headlight beam of his motorcycle was the last I saw of were back on Sunside and his wolves were close by. He him; when that beam blinked out and the roar of his had used to 'know' they were there, without knowing engine was cut off, and the darkness crept in on me as how. But here, in an alien world? It was strange. never before, I knew we'd seen the last of him. And I That night he dreamed of the dog. And in the morning, wouldn't be here now if something of him hadn't come over breakfast, he asked: 'Can we drive back to that back at last.' village close to where Harry lived?' Nathan hugged his coat to him, shook off a thin layer 'Bonnyrig?' Trask raised a questioning eyebrow. 'If of snow from his shoulders. 'You ... loved him?' you'd like to, of course we can. Any special reason?' Zek and Trask glanced at one another. 'Yes,' Trask 'I don't know,' Nathan answered with a shrug. 'It's just answered, 'I suppose we did, in a way.' a feeling - that someone knows me there.' But Zek shook her head. 'I'm not so sure,' she said. 'But how could you know anyone there?' 'You have to remember, I'd seen inside his head. And 'I don't. But I think someone knows me ...' while he could be warm as a sunny day, he could also They went back to Bonnyrig, Trask driving slowly and be cold. But a different kind of cold. One that cuts to carefully on the treacherous, black-iced roads. And as the soul itself.' And looking at Nathan, to Nathan, she they passed street after street of neat, terraced houses, said: suddenly Nathan said: 'Stop! This is it. . . I think.' You have it, too. I suppose it's what makes you what The dog-feeling was back, the dog-mind, impinging you are. But be careful, Nathan, and make sure that the on his own. cold never outweighs the warmth ... As Nathan got out of the car, he teetered a little. Trask Trask wasn't party to this but knew that something said, 'Careful! That's black ice. I know it looks like had passed between them. And so his next statement tarmac, but in fact you could skate on it!' 683 682 came to the door, crowding the space beside the yoang Zek, closer to Nathan's telepathic mind, knew that he man. Her eyes peered out from a dim corridor into the was suffering from a kind of disorientation, not from the light of day, adjusting to the brightness. Then she saw slippery surface of the road. And catching Trask's eye, Nathan and the others - but her eyes quickly returned to she said, 'Dej'a vu?' Nathan, and her gasp of recognition was perfectly Nathan was back in control of himself. Smiling, he audible. But in a moment, when she'd taken the time to said, 'It's down here.' And he made his way down a side think about it - whatever it was - she laughed and said, street to the garden of a house with a shiny brass number 'No, it couldn't be.' seven on the gate, then up a short path to the door. And Trask was fascinated. 'What couldn't be?' as Trask and Zek caught up, so he knocked. 'Oh, nothing,' she said. 'But there was a young man 'Nathan!' Trask was mildly alarmed. 'Now what in the we saw but once. A vet, he said. Fixed up Paddy after an name of -?' accident. He looked so like you.' She turned again to But Zek took Trask's arm and quietly told him, 'Just Nathan. 'But of course it couldn't be, not possibly. For let it be, Ben. Nathan himself doesn't know "what in the you'd be younger now than you were then, and that was name of". So let's wait and find out.' all of . . . oh, sixteen, seventeen years ago!' They didn't have long to wait. Nathan's knock was 'Did you know this vet's name?' This from Zek. answered almost immediately by a tall, frowning, good- 'Ah! That's something I did know,' the woman looking young man who was half-turned towards his answered. 'I have a cousin of the same name, and so I visitors and half towards the interior of the house. remembered. It was a Mr Keogh fixed Paddy up that Glancing at the three on the doorstep, he said, 'Just a time. And he did a good job, too, for the old dog's as moment, please,' and called back into the house: 'Paddy - frisky as ever. He's near-blind now, but never a day's will you stop that?' And again to his visitors, smiling sickness for all his years!' now and by way of explanation: 'My old dog. I don't Trask and Zek felt the goose-flesh rise and looked at know what's got into him!' each other. They heard a tumult of excited snuffling and barking from somewhere inside the house. And: Maybe Paddy had heard his name mentioned. 'Paddy,' Nathan said, nodding. 'Yes.' As if the young Whatever, he was curious. And now the two on the man had just supplied the answer to something. And in doorstep must make way for him, too. It was the large his mind a sudden vision: dark skid marks burned into mongrel dog of Nathan's dream and vision, of course. the tarmac ... and Paddy, a mongrel puppy, dead in the Squeezing out between his master and the young man's gutter. One of the pup's forelegs flopping like a rubber mother, Paddy reared up - band ... its spine kinked and its shoulders askew ... its - But in no way threateningly. Whining, Paddy knead- partly-crushed head oozing brain fluid from a torn right ded Nathan's stomach with his big front paws; his black ear. and white mop of a head was tilted back; he tried The vision came - and was gone. desperately hard to lick the Necroscope's face but 'Who is it, dear?' A slender, middle-aged woman couldn't reach it. 684 685 has to make this the best aftercare a dog ever had! Can And certain now, the woman gasped, 'He ... knows you!' ah take it your father told you to look us up?' 'No,' Nathan told her. 'But I think he knew my father.' 'My father is . . . he's dead,' Nathan answered. 'But She sighed and her hand flew to her mouth. 'Of yes, he did say that if I was ever up this way . ..' course! Of course! The resemblance is remarkable! But 'Well, you're very welcome,' Peter McCulloch told please come in. Do come on in!' And to her son: 'Peter, him, told all three. 'Paddy has been a sheer joy all his do you remember?' life, yet at the time I would have sworn there was no life 'Remember?' the young man cried, making way for left in him. It was a car, on the corner out there. Paddy the visitors and ushering them down a short passage was . . . oh, a mess. So that I was sure he was dead. But beside the stairwell into a large living-room. Til say I Mr Keogh took him away, and brought him back that remember. What a day that was. One to remember the same night. Like a new dog! Not a mark on him! To this rest of your life.' day I still can't believe it...' And when the three were seated, to Nathan: 'Your 'You'll stay and take a meal with us?' Peter's mother father was . . . he was like a miracle-worker!' took Zek's hand. And Nathan and Zek together thought: To say the 'I'm afraid we have other appointments,' Trask was least! But out loud Nathan said, 'What makes you say quick to cut in. 'In fact we have to be on our way right so?' now. It's just that -' A middle-aged, grey-haired man had joined them from another room. He must have heard something of the '- It's that my father said I would always find a welcome here,' Nathan finished it, standing up. 'And I conversation, and the excitement on his wife and son's did...' faces was unmistakable. 'Your father was Mr Keogh, eh? The vet? Well, and don't we owe him a favour!' It was a statement of fact, not a question. 'Aye, and Back in the car, Trask said: 'That - was amazing! How doesn't the auld dog there know it! He's no like that wi' did you know? How could you have known?' just anyone, son.' Nathan shook his head a moment, then looked at Paddy was at Nathan's feet where the Necroscope sat Trask curiously. 'Ben, are you sure you've told me on a couch, his forepaws in his lap, tongue lolling. everything you know, about Harry? He was the Trask laughed. 'Well, Paddy mightn't see too well, but Necroscope, yes: he talked to the dead and, when he was he certainly seems to know you!' threatened, could even call them up to a semblance of 'I. . . have a way with dogs.' Nathan shrugged. life, for his protection. I know all that. You've told me But now the grey-haired man was more serious. 'So all that. And actually it's no great surprise. For after all did your father,' he said. 'A healing way. Ah'm John I'm a Necroscope, too. But I feel there's something else McCulloch, by the way. This is mah wife, Mary, and here, something different. I mean, the dead are dead, and mah son, Peter. Peter was just a wee lad then, which Paddy was very much alive. I tried to read his mind through deadspeak and it didn't work. Paddy is alive. Yet after all this time he remembered my father - the 686 687 feel of his mind - and felt something of it in mine. Peter to know. And it explains a thing or two. Why the dead, McCulloch told us he was sure at the time that his pup who had loved Harry for so long, forsook him in the end. was dead. So . . . I suppose what I'm really asking is this: It wasn't simply that they feared his necromancy but the what other powers did Harry have? For it's one thing to form which it took. To be able to call them back to life . . . make the dead walk, but it's quite another to make them it must have given him a very terrible power over them.' live and breathe again.' 'Yes,' Trask agreed. 'Just such a power as Janos Trask stared studiously out through the windscreen at Ferenczy possessed. For even the dead can only be the road ahead and got his thoughts in order. For Nathan tortured for so long, until they become dust. But apparently, was right: that side of his father was rarely touched upon Janos could call them up from their very ashes into life, to by E-Branch and had never been mentioned to Nathan torture them again and again. Harry never used it that way, himself. It was the difference between a Necroscope and no, but he did have the power if he'd wished it. . . " a necromancer, between Good and Evil. And yet even as Nathan was thoughtful. 'I've talked to several of the time ran out for him, Harry Keogh had not been evil. Only dead since John Scofield,' he finally said. 'Even a handful the Thing inside him had been that, which he'd somehow who knew my father personally. But none of them has managed to keep under control until the bitter end. ever so much as mentioned this other - facet?' He had not been evil... but he had been a necromancer. Again Trask looked at him, perhaps with a trace of Necromancy: a dark, esoteric art which Harry had learned uncertainty, even fear showing in his face. 'And if you from Janos Ferenczy, last of an infamous line, at his were one of the Great Majority, would you mention it?' castle in the Zarundului Mountains of Carpathia. This Zek had been silent for a while. Now she said, 'Nathan, much Trask knew of it, and no more - except that Harry I don't want you to have any doubts about Harry. When he had used it to bring back not only a dog but men from the was finished - a vampire and necromancer, forsaken by the great beyond! Even now the Head of E-Branch didn't living and the dead alike, so that he must flee this world much care to dwell on it, for he knew terrible mistakes into the doubtful sanctuary of Starside - stilJ he was had been made and that espers had died -one of them Harry. He harmed no one, indeed he cared for ... oh, twice - unnecessarily. everyone, all of us! He cared for me, for a girl called As Trask thought these things so he glanced at Nathan Penny who he'd brought back from the dead, even for Ben out of the corner of his eye, and saw him staring back at here and E-Branch. And he never betrayed us, not once. him. Such was the other's curiosity, he hadn't been able to The truth of it is that we betrayed him. So when you think resist it. He had even framed his question in such a way of your father think of that, and act accordingly.' that Trask couldn't answer spontaneously but must think The slightest nod of his head was Nathan's about it. acknowledgement of her words. That was the way he And of course, Nathan had read those thoughts. Now would think of it - But his natural curiosity remained ... he saw the truth, the knowledge of what he'd done reflected in Trask's eyes, and said, 'I'm sorry, but I had 688 689 Driving back down to London at the end of their tour, viaduct and the green valley which it spanned, where a Trask took the opportunity to break their journey with an stream sparkled in wintry sunlight. But as soon as overnight stay in Hartlepool. This was hardly for the Nathan entered the graveyard - as soon as the branches natural 'beauty' of the place, though in fact the once- of the trees sprawling over the wall from the cobbled industrial town's gradual decay over a period of fifty avenue shut out the sun - he felt the solitude of the place, years had now been arrested, but because Harry Keogh its solemnity, and knew that his father had walked here had lived here before his recruitment into E-Branch. He'd as a boy. It was as if the Necroscope's footprints were lived here, and earlier in Harden Village a few miles still there in the glittering marble chips of the winding away, which at that time had been a colliery. pathways, in the leaf-mould and grave dirt, and the That evening they drove through to Harden and Trask cropped grass between the plots. took Nathan and Zek to see Harry's old school. The place Then, hearing or sensing something - a muttered word was empty, grimy, silent. It stood within sight of a or furtive movement - Nathan looked up, to see a pair of dilapidated railway viaduct which was due for demolition, muffled figures leaning on a gate some twenty, twenty- with the swelling North Sea greyly visible between its five paces away: his minders, their breath pluming in the rotting brick arches. frozen air. Keeping a respectful distance and trying not By this time Nathan had noticed Trask's attraction to to look conspicuous, still they looked out for him. And Zek (a blind man would have noticed it), and the fact that reassured, he went on. she was showing a measured response. He suspected that It was as if his feet had a mind of their own; they led his mentor would probably appreciate some time alone him on; before he knew it, he walked more surely in the with her. Which was why, after they had walked round shade of benign trees before coming to a halt where an the perimeter of the school, Nathan suggested that the old headstone stood over a weed-grown plot. And as his pair might like to go off and 'do something together', eyes focused on the stone's legend, so he opened his while he took in the atmosphere of the place. deadspeak mind more fully to the whispers of the dead. It was partly that he wanted them to be free of him for Who is it? they queried. Who can it be? It feels like ... a little while, but mainly that he wanted to be free of like ... but no, for he's been gone a long time now. He won't them. For as the three of them had walked together down be back, which is as well. And yet... this one lives, too, and a narrow, cobbled avenue of trees between the old school his thoughts are deadspeak! How can that be, unless the and the local graveyard, Nathan had felt the lure of the rumours are true? They say a new one has come into the leaning, lichen-clad tombstones and had known that he world. But is it him, or is it . . . some Other? Dare we speak would find friends there. Or rather, that his father had to him? Dare we ... inquire? found friends there. It was a chance to find out more about And a firmer, stronger voice said: Long be/ore he Harry. became a threat, the Necroscope was our friend. He was It was a blustery afternoon, but bright and uplifting, as the only friend we had! And now there's this one. Trask and Zek walked off arm in arm towards the 690 691 WeU, and are you satisfied to just lie here in your limbo and Jet the Jiving worJd pass by unseen, unknown? WilJ you pass up this opportunity to make contact with a Jiving VII mind? Harry's gone, we alJ know that, and we know what Incentive he was. But be/ore that he was our /riend. And I for one miss him! You're not aJone, said a wiser but fainter voice, as yet another incorporeal one entered his own plea. And despite that the voice was faint, still it was close, so that Nathan guessed it issued from the earth at his very feet, from this 'Sir,' said Nathan, unable to contain the slight catch in his very tomb. I miss him, too. I used to teach Maths at the voice, the excitement in his heart, 'whoever you are, I schooJ just across the road. It was — oh, I don't know think I may have been looking for you since the day I was how Jong ago. Fifty, sixty years? But I'd been dead a long born!' time when Harry came to me with the first of his For a moment there was a stunned silence, then a cJassroom problems - problems in Maths. And do you deadspeak 'gasp' of astonishment, finally the mass know, I actuaJIy helped him to soJve them! Can you exclamation of a hundred or more incorporeal minds: beJieve it? I was the one who taught the Necroscope his Harry! mathematics! But there was more than just astonishment in their Nathan's jaw fell open; the shorter hairs stood erect on voices. There was fear, too. So that Nathan at once the back of his neck; he couldn't believe what he'd just informed them: 'No, not Harry but Nathan. Nathan heard, the incredible gift which now seemed within reach. Keogh. Harry was my father. That's why I . . . why I But finally, as the legend showing through the lichens on sound like him.' the headstone took on new meaning, he had to believe it. Sound and fee] like him. The voice was J.G. Hannant's. For even with his limited understanding of the written No wonder the dead have been so reluctant! Your father word, he could now make it out to read: was - he became - other than completely reliable. I mean, towards the end of, er ... JAMES GORDON HANNANT . 'I know what you mean,' Nathan told him. 'I know what 13 June 1875 - 11 Sept. 1944 Harry was. I come from a world where They breed. So Master at Harden Boys' School there's really no need to explain your fears.' And then, for Thirty Years, Headmaster more eagerly: 'But if I may impose upon you, especially for Ten, now he Numbers upon your time, there is something you can perhaps help among the Hosts me with.' of Heaven. Oh? The other was cautious. 'Yes. It's what you were saying earlier, about teaching the Necroscope his maths. Whatever it is you showed 693 Nathan's response was almost automatic, instinctive him - whatever method you used to instruct him - I'd be as his father's maths had been. 'Men should never try to grateful if you could show, teach, the same things to me.' read the future,' he said, 'for it's a devious thing. But Ah! said Hannant. Well, first things first. And perhaps I since you ask me, this is how I see it. I've been promised should warn you: I did show Harry a few things, yes, but knowledge and weapons, modern weapons, to take back it was quite wrong of me to give the impression that I with me into Sunside/Starside, to give to the Szgany. actually taught him anything. What he had was Weapons my people can use to fight and destroy the instinctive; I showed him several shortcuts, that's all; the Wamphyri. Except ... even now I can't be certain that I rest came naturally. But as I said, first things first. ever will get back. But if I were able to understand and Obviously you have a story to tell, and we want to hear it. use the Mobius Continuum, then I would be certain.' How is it you're here, Nathan? And why are you so This - Mb'bius Continuum? - would give you the anxious to follow in Harry's footsteps? Perhaps you are power to transfer at will between your vampire world too anxious, eh? Perhaps you would follow him too and ours? If there was a point to the question, Nathan closely. I'm sure you'll understand our reticence. missed it. Nathan told them his story, the story of his life. He kept 'Not necessarily,' he answered. 'But it would be a step it short, picturing most of it as opposed to vocalizing it, in the right direction. And it would give me instant access but despite that deadspeak frequently conveys more than to any number of escape routes, if ever I do get back to is actually said, still it took him the best part of an hour. Sunside/Starside.' Until at last he finished it with: I see, said the spokesman, but so quietly and 'So you see, I need all the help I can get. I have some thoughtfully that Nathan could almost see him rubbing of my father's talents - his deadspeak, obviously, and his chin. You've come here from a world of monsters in even the telepathy which he displayed towards the end of human guise - which you have admitted is a plague- his time here - but they aren't enough. Not nearly enough ridden place. And yet you persist in trying to create a to prepare me for any sort of real confrontation with the gateway between worlds. Instantaneous right of passage. Wamphyri.' For yourself ... and for what else? Hannant had listened to all of this very attentively, but Now Nathan knew what was troubling the other and in the background Nathan had been able to make out the causing this new wave of uncertainty. 'But can't you furtive whispers of the Great Majority voicing their fears, understand?' he answered. 'Such gateways already exist! doubts and indecision. Now, as he fell silent, one of these Two of them. They are the source of vampirism in your quieter, more fearful voices came forward: a spokesman world, or what was your world when you had life. I'm for the dead. not trying to open them but close them down - How do you see your future, Nathan? The voice was permanently! Or better still, destroy the Wamphyri on quavery, uncertain as its owner. Let's just suppose that by their own ground and make both of our worlds safe from some miracle of chance, we - or rather some of us, like them.' Hannant here - can actually help you? What will you do? We don't for a moment suggest that you would 694 695 probably saved his life a dozen times over! I did that, yes deliberately use such knowledge to let vampires loose in - I, Graham 'Sergeant' Lane - and I was proud of it! Yet at our world (Nathan sensed the shake of an incorporeal the end even I betrayed him. And I know why. It's this: head). No, /or it's already apparent that you're neither evil that we the dead will only admit to two states of being: nor criminally insane. But as you yourself have pointed life and death. Having experienced both, we understand out, no man may read the future with impunity. And if them. But there's a third state called un-death, a state you were to fall into Their hands -? which we never accepted. And Harry was undead. He'd '- I've been in their hands, and escaped them!' Nathan's become a vampire, and so we turned our backs on him. frustration was mounting. To be as close as this, and to Well we were wrong to do so! Now we've been given the come up against a stumbling block; this stumbling block: opportunity to square it with his son here. And will you the legacy of his vampire father. 'And after all,' he went turn him down? on uncontrollably, 'what do you know about it? Have you The background babble of deadspeak whispers came stood face to face with a Lord of the Wamphyri? Was flooding in again. There were those who believed that the your father one of them? And has your brother been living and the dead should remain apart, always, and that changed into - into ...' But now he saw that he'd gone too the mysteries of the grave should remain mysteries to the far, that he'd said and thought too much. living, until they in turn died and joined the Great And after a moment of total silence: Majority. These were the bitter ones who had never Not only your father (the voice of the spokesman was succeeded in life, and so lost nothing in death. But they very quiet now, and much more thoughtful), but your were shouted down by others whose time had been good, brother, too? so that death had cheated them of a great deal. And their But now Hannant was back, and belligerent! Nathan, argument was that there was much to be gained: to be take no notice. I'll help you if 1 can, and they can take able to talk again - through the Necroscope Nathan - with their spite out on me. For I believe every word you said loved ones left behind; perhaps to explain that death is and I'm sure that you'll be as big a bonus to the dead as not the end, but the renewal of old loves and friendships Harry was. So what can they do to me, eh? Ostracism? waiting in the last long darkness. Not a physical renewal, But I've been ostracized before - from life itself.' no, but nevertheless a joining of sorts. And another voice joined him in his defiance of the Nathan was party to all of this, which showed a certain Great Majority; that first, strong voice which had spoken up understanding on the part of the dead at least: that they no for the Necroscope, Harry Keogh, and which now spoke longer excluded him from their discussions, even when he for Nathan in his turn. Hannant is right/ What's wrong and his problem were the business under discussion. And with the lot of you? Have you lain here so long in the finally: earth that nothing can move you any more? We owed Harry Keogh, and we betrayed him! I was one of his Very well, the voice of the spokesman for the teeming teachers, too, just like Hannant, and even after I died I dead was back again. We accept you and everything you taught him unarmed combat. Why, it stand for. And as Hannant said, we hope you'll 696 697 understand our reticence. These have been strange times the past, the teeming dead loved your father. So much so /or the dead, Nathan. A great shouting, a terrible tumult that they would do . . . anything for him. And now a new from the south, reached us even here. Periodically we light shines in their darkness. All we ask is this: use that would feel it: an urge to be up and about! Something power sparingly. We feared John Scofield because in his beyond our control! It's not right t h at dead men should madness he could have made us walk again in the world want to walk again, or that others should have the power of the living. Don't make us fear you. Please, stay out of to make it so! danger, in this world at least. Nathan recognized the other's subject at once. 'I believe Til try to,' Nathan answered, as humbly as he was able. I know what you're talking about: John Scofield and the 'But as for your love: I haven't asked for it. Be my Nightmare Zone. But that's over and done with now. friends, and I'll be satisfied. And as for calling you up: I Maybe if I'd mentioned it earlier things would have been would never do that. Any who would come up out of the that much easier. Perhaps you would have accepted me earth for me must do so of their own free will.' sooner.' Easily said, the other's deadspeak voice sighed. But You ... had something to do with that? your warmth has touched us now. Harry Keogh is in you 'I was the one called upon to put John and his family to - the original Harry, before he succumbed - and he was rest, yes. Though I have to admit I couldn't have done it someone the dead ;ust couldn't resist. A bringer of joy, without the help of the Great Majority. But ... am I to but a bringer of pain, too. It's no easy thing, to get up understand that you're not all of you in contact all of the from the grave. But when he needed us, we couldn't time?' refuse him. And so I ask it again: stay out of danger ... And now it was Hannant who answered him. It takes And before Nathan could prepare an answer: quite a Jot out of us to converse at a distance, Nathan. Now then, how may we help? Indeed, it's exhausting! Not so hard for Harry, in his time. Nathan turned eagerly to Hannant, tuned in on that Once he'd been introduced to someone, he could usually one's deadspeak mind. 'Sir? About Harry's maths ...' speak to him from anywhere in the world! And it should And Hannant interrupting, with: Wait! Before you ask be the same for you. But you and your father, you're me to show you anything, perhaps you'd better show me a Necroscopes, with all the drive of the living. And we are thing or two. You must have learned something since only dead people. If it wasn't for you, no one would know you've been here. we were here at all - except as memories. And even Nathan showed him: orthodox maths of a high standard, memories are sometimes soon forgotten .. . with one or two 'original' concepts thrown in. It was as As Hannant finished, so the spokesman came back: simple as that: a pageant of equations marching like an You have our word that we'll work with you as far as army of numbers and symbols down the screen of his that is possible. But Nathan, you should know this: there's mind. a great power in you. And it's not one you might easily Standard stuff - mainly, Hannant commented, his recognize. I'm talking about the power of love. In thoughts clipped, precise and perhaps 'typical' of a maths master. But if I may say so, you show exactly the 699 698 same lateral tendencies as Harry. Which of course you the vortex and reduce it first to a spiral of valueless must, if you're to achieve what he achieved. But is this ciphers, and finally to nothing. everything? If so, there's not much to work with. And in a little while Hannant said: My God/ There is other ... stuff,' Nathan told him. 'Stuff that's To which Nathan replied, 'In Sunside we have no real inside me. I've been training myself to keep it God. He died along with our civilization, at the time of suppressed. But I'm going to need a lot more of this the White Sun.' lesser maths before I'll be able to understand it. It's not And when Hannant was himself again: As I recall, he the same as what I just showed you. It's in flux, changing said, the Necroscope Harry Keogh wasn't too sure about a - mutating? - all the time. It's ... alive! It lives and works God either. But if there isn't one, how may I explain within itself. It's like a whirlpool, a numbers vortex.' what I just saw? And how is it that you don't understand Show me. it? J mean, to have something like that in your mind and 'You're sure?' not know what it is? And yet. . . this isn't the first time What? The ex-headmaster and maths teacher seemed I've seen it. Something like it, anyway. momentarily taken aback, surprised. But only for a 'It isn't?' Nathan's fascination was obvious. moment, until he laughed and said: But of course I'm No, I don't think so. But last time, it was ... what, sure! I mean, do you think it can harm me? controlled? So Nathan showed him. And while the numbers vortex 'By Harry?' could not in truth harm Hannant, it could and did shock Of course. He was in Leipzig visiting the grave of him rigid! Mobius. Indeed, I was the one who sent him there.' Like Swift as thought, Nathan's deadspeak - the issue of his you, he had come to me searching for answers. But weird metaphysical mind - underwent an almost unlike you, all Harry had was an idea, a symbol. Hannant metamorphic transformation. Like a mental meltdown, it showed it to him: the Mobius strip. sent near-nucleic energies radiating outwards into the And Nathan thought: Mobius's blazon. And Ma-glore's. incorporeal aether. And at the heart of the inferno: And now mine, too. His hand automatically lifted to his The numbers vortex! Hungry, seething, and 'sentient' ear, to touch the golden earring there -until he in its own right, it sought to fuel its own fires. Mutating remembered that he'd left it in London with David formulae where they surfaced and swarmed on the Chung, like a lifeline to E-Branch HQ. whirling rim were sucked back into the core and Maglore? Hannant broke into his thoughts. Nathan's devoured; caught in devastating collision, incredible telling of his story had been brief, and much of his stay calculi exploded in the cauldron of pure maths; evolving in Turgosheim had been left out. A friend of yours? equations were fired in bursts from the wildly rotating Nathan shuddered and answered, 'Friend? No, not wall like bullets from a machine-gun. him!' And putting Maglore out of his mind, he Hannant took a full burst before his astonished dead- immediately reverted to their original conversation: 'But speak 'gasp' registered, causing Nathan to rein back on did you say that my father's numbers were different from those in the vortex?' 700 701 Not different but controlled. Where your numbers are he's no longer there.' And remembering what Gormley wild, untamed, Nathan, the numbers in Harry's mind were had said: 'Only Mobius's bones are in Leipzig now.' like a vast, ever-changing equation on the screen of a I know, Hannant told him, sensing the depth of his computer, which he could stop at the touch of a mental frustration. But you know, Mobius wasn't the only button. Except the power of his numbers was such that it mathematician in the world. Towards the end of Harry's couldn't be contained, which is the reason I compared time here, he even asked the help of the giants. And them to God! Only attempt to still their activity, they they gave it to him! For of course, they owed him. The spilled over into something else; their mutation became Necroscope was the one who showed us how to physical as opposed to hypothetical. communicate among ourselves. Since when ... well, 'And then? Did they do something? What did they do?' there's quite a community of us now: a fraternity, you Nathan's eagerness was very nearly painful. Yet at the could say. All the various experts in their various fields, same time, paradoxically, he was cautious; for several they talk to each other from time to time, and keep up people had already told him that numbers can't do to date as best they can. anything, that they simply are. But: 'The "giants"?' They warped! Hannant told him. Through Harry's eyes, Hannant offered a deadspeak shrug, which was hardly I saw them warp! And they formed doors. Then . . . I saw negligent but merely expressed his acceptance of his Harry use one of those doors, saw him pass through it place in the order of things. Giants, yes. Compared with and disappear ... such as Pythagoras, small minds like mine are as nothing. Doors! Perhaps when I've lain in the earth as long as he has ... And once again, as so often before, Nathan's mind went 'Pythagoras?' back to Sunside's furnace deserts — to the caverns under As briefly as possible, Hannant explained. And in so the earth and the dwelling-places of the Thyre -and to doing he humbled Nathan, too. For it brought a sense of what the dead Thyre Stargazer Thikkoul had forecast for human history to him, and a feeling of awe: that the him in the undying, everlasting stars. The doors of his people of this world had records going back all of two future: thousand six hundred years! 'Like the doors on a hundred Szgany caravans but Oh, longer than that! Hannant told him. We also have liquid, drawn on water, formed of ripples ...' Thikkoul the record of the Earth itself, which goes back billions had whispered. 'Doors, constantly opening and closing. of years! But as for feelings of awe: I don't think you And behind each one of them, a piece of your future ...' realize your own potential. For while your colleagues ... Nathan snapped out of it. 'Mobius,' he groaned. 'It among the living have the history, you have the power to always comes back to him. An unending loop, like the actually converse with that history! Your text books are Mobius Strip itself. A dead end. I've been told that he's the minds of the ancient dead . . . or those of them still moved on, perhaps used his own Continuum to travel to extant, at least. For a moment he paused, and then went worlds beyond. I would go and speak to him, except on more cautiously: Except... 'Yes?' 702 703 (Again Hannant's shrug, this time of defeat, or partial 'Did we interrupt something important?' Zek took defeat.) Except Pythagoras has withdrawn back into his Nathan's arm as he stood up. shell. For a while Harry brought him out of himself. He 'Truthfully?' he glanced at Trask. 'Yes. But it's OK. I had even dissolved the brotherhood and made himself can get back to him.' available. But when he discovered the advances we had 'Him?' This from Trask. made, and saw how the numbers he had known were only Nathan indicated the headstone. 'A one-time teacher at the germ of current knowledge ... that was too much for the school across the road. In life he must have been a him. It was easier to retreat into the safety of obsolete very fine man. Later, he was a friend of my father's. My doctrines, surround himself in secrecy once more and friend, now.' await his grand metempsychosis. No one has spoken to 'Should we go off again?' Trask wanted to put things Pythagoras for, oh, a long time. right. 'Is there something you need to finish?' 'But you know where he is?' Nathan shook his head. 'Later.' Oh, yes. They let it go at that, walked to the car and drove back And buoyed up again, Nathan answered: 'Then it's high to their hotel in Hartlepool... time someone did speak to him!' And such was his tone of voice, the weight of his commitment, he might easily 'When we drove back through the town,' Nathan said have meant now, this very instant. over their evening meal, 'I noticed that my father had 'Speak to whom?' Trask said, his hand falling on chosen to live in a house directly opposite a large Nathan's shoulder where he sat on the dais of Hannant's graveyard, a very old place.' tomb. It was so unexpected that Nathan jumped six Trask nodded and said, 'Very appropriate, don't you inches. And startled out of his deadspeak mode, he lost think?' And before Nathan could answer, Til tell you contact with Hannant at once. something about that garret flatlet of Harry's: it was Gasping, he looked up at Trask and blurted, 'Pythagoras!' where Harry Junior - your brother - first used the Mobius The Pythagoras?' This from Zek, whose glance was Continuum. And he was no more than an infant at the accusing where she aimed it at Trask. time. So there's hope for you yet.' 'Was there more than one?' Nathan thought to himself: An infant. The Dweller. 'No.' Trask shook his head. 'I think not.' Then, feeling My brother by a woman not my mother was a mere Zek's annoyance, he followed up with an apology. infant, yet even as a helpless, defenceless bairn, he knew 'Nathan, I'm sorry. Like a fool I thought you were talking more than I've learned in a lifetime! But if it was instinct to yourself! But now, from the look on your face, I know in him, then why not in me? What's missing in me? And that you weren't. It's just that ... even knowing your where is it? I feel incomplete. Did Nestor get something talent, it's still hard for me to believe, that's all. I tend to intended for me? And if so, why hasn't it developed in forget what you can do.' him? And a moment later: But I thank Trask's and Hannant's 'God' that it hasn't! 704 705 And out loud, if abstractedly: 'How was it that time?' ting flesh. Some of them, recently dead, were in their he asked Trask. graveclothes, but others ... had been dead for a long 'I wasn't there,' the other shrugged, perhaps regretfully. time. They flopped over the cemetery wall, squelched 'I was out of it, injured, hospitalized. The Branch was out of its gate, shuffled or crawled across the road. And tracking down a monster, Yulian Bodescu, who was then they were knocking at the door of the house, Wamphyri, and I'd been hurt at the creature's house seeking entry. down in Devon. Since then, I've often wished I had been 'Darcy thought he was going mad. But knowing Harry's there, but on the other hand ... maybe I was lucky. A very talent — and knowing now that his child was also a good friend of mine was there, however -an extraordinary Necroscope - he had to accept the truth of it. At which man, an esper called Darcy Clarke -and he told me about he made to go downstairs and let them in. Can you it. Also, I've read the reports ...' He paused for a moment, imagine it? Darcy was going to let a horde of walking then continued: corpses into this house of horror! But in the end it didn't 'It was night. Harry's wife and infant son were in the come to that. Something happened that he just couldn't flat. Bodescu forced his way in and killed a policeman take and he passed out. And we learned the rest of it and two Special Branch men who got in his way. But the later, from Harry himself. baby was a Necroscope. Harry Keogh's child, the 'Harry Junior had already taken his mother to E- teeming dead loved him. And he called them up, to Branch HQ via the Mobius Continuum. The dead people defend himself and his mother. attacked Bodescu in the garret flat, and despite that he 'The dead of night, no one saw them leave their tombs was Wamphyri, he didn't stand a chance against them. and come out of the graveyard but Darcy. He was in a For after all, they had nothing to lose. Changing his locked, barred room on the second floor, and had just body-shape to an airfoil, he crashed through the window. seen Bodescu kill a colleague. Then, while Darcy was But one of the dead was a marksman and put a crossbow trying to make his escape through a window, he looked bolt in his spine. Crippled, he fell to earth. They found down on the graveyard. And I'll always remember how him in the cemetery, staked him down, cut off his head he described what he saw: and burned him. That's the story .. .' 'At first he couldn't believe it: the road outside the Nathan looked at him and nodded. 'And well told,' he house was filling with people, but in no way ordinary said. 'But maybe the dead in that graveyard could have people. Silent streams of them were converging, massing told it even better. I think I should speak to them. together. They were coming out of the cemetery gates, There's a lot to learn about my father, and they're the over its front wall - men, women and children - and only ones who know. The only ones who really know.' crossing the road to gather in front of the house. And 'Do you want us to go with you?' Zek knew he didn't. they were quiet as the graves they'd so recently vacated! 'I think I might prefer to be alone,' Nathan answered. 'I Their stench drifted up to Darcy on the damp night air, can concentrate better. Also, I get the feeling that the the overpowering reek of advanced decay and rot- dead don't like it . . . when other people are "listening in", so to speak.' 707 706 'Your minders will be there,' Trask reminded him. And suddenly Trask's heart felt light as a youth's in the 'As long as they keep well back,' Nathan answered. arms of his first love. Of all men, he knew the truth when 'But you know, the night time is their time.' he saw it. . . The dead?' 'Yes. When the world is quiet, that's when they come That night, Nathan talked to the dead in the Hartlepool into their own. What's left of it.' Then, feeling Zek's eyes cemetery on the Blackball Road. And of course they on him, her telepathic probe, he looked at her. remembered Harry Keogh, his father. But there was no The night time was Harry's time, too, she told him. reticence in them now; the Great Majority wanted to And in profile, when you smile in that oh-so-sad way of make up for lost time; they felt Nathan's natural warmth, yours, you Jook f u s t like him. Except . . . at the end, his took him to their hearts and poured their loneliness on eyes glowed red in the dark. And in a little while: 1 him until he felt weighed under by it. Until he felt, know how dangerous your world is, Nathan, for I've indeed, very much as Harry had used to feel before him. been there. But you know, this one can be dangerous, For if being a Necroscope had a drawback, this was it: too, in so many ways. So when you're on your own, the fact that friends are not just for helping, but also for promise me you'll be careful. being helped. And while there were millions of them, That was twice someone had asked him to be careful there was only one Nathan. in as many hours. It made him feel wanted, made him In the ancient Hartlepool graveyard, however, with all feel good. It's a promise, he answered. As long as you'll of its leaning, moss-grown slabs, their numbers were not promise to take me to see Pythagoras. so great that he couldn't cope. For a little while, at least. In the Greek islands? Her eyes opened wider. And And while he didn't learn a lot about Harry Keogh (for Jazz? after all, what was there now to be known, beyond the Oh, yes. Jazz too. fact that the dead had loved him?) Nathan's honesty and Deal! she said. humility did cement a friendship which would last as long Trask had been watching them, the way their eyes as memory. And the memories of the teeming dead are locked. Now he grinned, if a little uncertainly, and told long indeed. Zek, 'He's way too young for you.' Towards the end, when the cold and a swirling ground Zek patted his hand across the table. 'And he's married,' mist had seeped so deep into his bones that he began to she reminded him. 'What's more, he's a tele-path, and we feel a part of the inscribed marble slab where he sat, a generally don't get on too well together. So consider small, shy, deadspeak voice said to him: Nathan, do you yourself lucky, Ben Trask. Consider yourself lucky.' think you could help me, please? 'Can I?' Suddenly he was more than half-serious. It was a girl-child's voice, but a voice filled with such Zek's smile was warm on him. 'Can we talk about it sadness, Nathan's heart ached for her. 'If I can,' he told later?' she said. But the look in her eyes was different her. 'But... who are you?' from when she was looking at Nathan. My name is Cynthia, she told him. I am - I was - 708 709 seven. That wasn't very long ago. But my bones were When Nathan left the graveyard he was a man with a sick and wouldn't make bJood for me, and so I died. But new mission; just one more task among all the others even before that, my Mummy and Daddy were so he'd set himself, which to most men might seem very worried about me! At school, I didn't make friends very insignificant in the greater scheme of things. To him, we/1, and they couldn't bear that 1 was lonely. So I know however, it seemed the most important thing in the they'll be worried even more now, because they'll think I world, so that by the time he reached the hotel he knew have no friends at all. But you can tell them that I do. You what he must do about it. can tell them I have lots of friends! He found Trask and Zek in the bar enjoying late-night Nathan thought about it and was stalled for ideas. His cocktails, and told them what he wanted to do. new friends saw his indecision — his helplessness — and 'Now? Tonight?' Trask checked his watch. It was just tried to help him out: after eleven. Cynthia, he heard them saying to her. The Necro-scope 'Right now,' Nathan nodded. 'Why should they hurt is a busy man. He just can't be at everyone's beck and any more than they have to?' call. He has his duties in the living world, too, you 'But . . . do you think they'll be up and about? I mean, know? And anyway, how can he possibly tell your will they still be awake, at this hour?' Trask didn't know Mummy and Daddy that you've spoken to him? They what else to say. His mind had been elsewhere. don't know that we're down here in the ground, still Nathan knew it and forgave him. 'Oh, yes. They'll be thinking our thoughts ... Their argument made sense, but awake. They'll be sitting there in their lonely home, still it seemed a cold one to Nathan. thinking, remembering, grieving. For you see, they haven't 'Let it be,' he told them. And to Cynthia herself: 'Little been getting a lot of sleep; nor are they likely to, unless we darling, if there's some way I can tell them, I will. And I'll help them.' be sure to let you know that I've told them. Except you'll Zek said, 'Let me get my coat.' And Trask and Nathan have to tell me where they live, and their second name. sat in silence waiting for her ... And then ... well, then there's something I'll want from you, in payment.' They drove through light, late-night traffic to an address Payment? on the outskirts of town: a fine-looking house with a 'A small favour, that's all.' gravel drive, well-stocked gardens, and a play corner Just ask it! (He could see her shining eyes, could with swings, a slide and a tree house. The place seemed in almost hear her small hands clapping her excitement). good order, yet had a hard-to-define air of desolation . . . 'A kiss,' he said. 'Just one, right here.' or perhaps not so hard to define. Downstairs, the lights And a moment later - were on in the living room, whose glass patio doors - It was as if an angel had touched Nathan's cheek. looked out on the road. And in that room, a man and And in the air, he seemed to smell the soft sad scent of woman sat facing each other, apparently in silence, across soap and tears and innocence ... a table. Their shoulders were hunched and they rested their heads in their hands. 710 711 Parking a little way down the road and turning off his And it was just as Nathan had explained it to Trask: lights, Trask asked: 'Should I come with you?' But Zek all of the remembering, the grieving and thinking of sad shook her head. thoughts was still in them, and all of the wondering 'Thanks, Ben,' she said, softly. 'But you might distract about Cynthia now, where and how she was now. It us.' was, in fact, the way it is for everyone who grieves. To Nathan indicated a second car which passed them and see someone in the street who looks like the one who came to a halt some fifty yards farther down the road. has gone, and to wonder why this one is here and the 'Perhaps you could speak to those two instead?' other . .. missing. For despite that Cynthia was dead, it 'Sure,' Trask nodded, as the two telepaths headed was too recent; she just couldn't be dead! Missing, yes, quietly back towards the house. but not dead. Not possibly. Not while other kids, while And when they got there: everyone else, lived. 'Will they see us?' Zek whispered. Nathan listened a while, until he couldn't take any 'No.' Nathan shook his head. 'We see them because of more of it. And then: the light in there. But out here it's dark. And anyway, Only to this world, he told them, in both of their they don't see much of anything any more. And they minds at one time. She's only dead to this world. don't think very much of anything, either, except 'Who ...?' The husband looked at his young wife. Cynthia. Which should make it that much easier.' 'What...?' Her eyes were big and round. 'What do you want me to do?' And with all the force and feeling Nathan could muster - 'Just give me your strength, boost my telepathy, help yet with compassion, too, that same compassion which me get through to them.' had made his father the champion of the dead - and with 'I'm ready when you are.' Zek coupling her own telepathic drive to his, he told Nathan had given it a lot of thought. He knew what to them: You are right, she Jives, but in worlds beyond, do, what to say. 'Now,' he said, and reached out with his where she has friends galore. Don't ask about it but mind to the couple inside the house ... believe. She can be happy there, if she knows that you ... Their grief was enormous. And Nathan knew it for are happy here. what it was. When he had thought that his mother, Cynthia's father shot to his feet, moved quickly yet brother, and especially Misha were dead, he had felt the stumblingly about the room, knocked a small coffee same grief - almost. But with him there had always been table over in his haste. He searched . . . in vain. For of a hope, however slim, that somehow they had lived course there was no one there. And: 'In my head!' he through that terrible time. And indeed they had. But said. Cynthia was undeniably dead, and her parents knew it. 'Mine too!' his wife cried. They had seen her through her illness, fighting it all the In both your heads, Nathan said. Now, do you be- way; they'd stood beside her bed, to be with her when h'eve? It's a very simple thing - she drew her last breath. '-- Called faith!' cried the woman, fainting. Her husband caught her before she could fall, and 712 713 looked up, looked all about the empty room. 'I . . . I never Back at the hotel, a Special Branch man came running believed.' from his anonymous-looking car. 'Sir?' But now you do? Trask could tell by the look on his face that it was 'Yes! Oh, yes!' important. 'What is it?' Then she'll be happy. 'Message. Urgent. Came in over our radio.' He handed 'But... where?' over a note and went back to his car. Trask watched him In worlds beyond. Except, you must never think of go, thinking: His is not to question why. Then he read following her, Nathan cautioned. For you're forbidden, the note: until your natural time. And then she'll be waiting. But not alone, for all of her friends are waiting with her. For Bravo-Tango: The man let himself down onto a couch with his wife Golf-Tango requests to speak to you about Tango-Tango at in his arms. 'Who ... are you?' he sobbed then. your earliest. Suggest you use a blender, preferably ours A friend of Cynthia's, Nathan answered, simply. Just ... one of . . . of a Great Many . . . Delta-Charlie. And as the man began sobbing, and crying: 'God forgive me that I haven't believed! Thank you, thank It was David Chung telling him that Gustav Turchin you!' so Nathan withdrew his telepathic probe. wanted to chinwag about Turkur Tzonov, a.s.a.p. 'Blender' On their way back to the car, Zek said, 'Will they be all was Branch jargon for a communications scrambler . . . right?' 'We'll return at first light and see,' Nathan answered. They did, and they saw. Wood smoke rose from the chimney and the husband was in the garden in his shirt sleeves, dismantling the swing. Cynthia wouldn't be needing it any more, not now that she was with her friends in the worlds beyond. In a little while, as they watched, the man's wife came out of the house and threw her arms round his neck. Talking, and holding tight, they moved inside . . . Returning to the hotel, Nathan requested that Trask park for a moment or two outside the cemetery in Blackball Road. Then, as they drove off again: 'Her mother and father will be fine now,' the Necro- scope sighed, relaxing and closing his eyes in the back of the car. 'And so will Cynthia ...' 714 'But sufficient,' Trask wouldn't be put off, 'to mount an invasion on a technologically defunct country - or world! VIII And let's face it, there is no other requirement. Not in Perchorsk. The precautions against any kind of incursion Doors! from the Gate are more than adequate as they stand. So why —' '- Why . . . is the big question, Mr Trask. Yes, I have to agree.' Turchin had gone very quiet, which warned Trask that even his diplomatic patience had its limits. His dark The drive down to London was uneventful. Back at E- eyes were glinting under bushy black eyebrows, and his Branch HQ, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Trask got thin lips had tightened. 'Please let me finish.' And in a Turchin on-screen; also, in the background and slightly moment: out of focus, the Ministry Responsible's 'Man in Moscow'. 'I did say that your fears were well-founded, did I not? The Russian Premier was short, blocky, apparently Indeed, I have had my eye - several eyes - on Mr Tzonov unshakable. In his position he had to be. Currently he for quite some time. Alas, it is not my position to 'presided' over food riots in Kazakhstan, massive radiation prosecute but merely to advise, in certain circumstances, pollution in the Black Sea, terrorism in the Ukraine, prosecution. When the evidence is to hand, then there Mafia-style gang wars in Moscow itself, and minor will be time enough to -' territorial and border disputes just about everywhere. '- But not yet?' Again Trask interrupted. Tm sorry, Mr 'And now this,' Turchin said, his words clipped, pared to President, but surely time is of the essence. Tzonov is a minimum, allowing for no misunderstanding, no known to have megalomaniac tendencies, and in at least misrepresentation. 'In response to your timely - warning? - one instance we know him to be guilty of murder! Or at I found a way to access certain restricted information. So the very least attempted murder.' far as I am able to ascertain, your fears with regard to a 'Siggi Dam -' the Premier paused and his lips tightened high-ranking official of the USS's security services ... no, more yet, '- is missing, yes.' He half-turned from the let us simply say Turkur Tzonov, are borne out - screen, then faced it head-on. 'Fled to the West, apparently. There is some evidence of modest weapon according to Turkur Tzonov, rather than face an inquiry shipments to the Perchorsk Project, and -' into her part in the -' 'Modest?' Trask put in. 'I'm sorry, Mr President, but we '- Escape of an alien from Perchorsk? But didn't we saw more than a "modest" arms cache in Perchorsk! In tell you that would be his excuse?' fact -' 'Yes,' Turchin nodded. 'And as excuses go, it would 'Please!' Turchin held up a hand. 'I have a good idea of appear to be a good one. For after all, you do have the what you saw. But modest, yes, in terms of the ordnance alien.' of a full-scale war.' 'The ... alien?' Trask countered. 'He's here, of course. But if he hadn't been treated like an animal, not to 716 717 '... Is unthinkable, I know. He could destroy what mention threatened with Tzonov's machine, he could just we've all been trying to rebuild for fifteen years, and in so as easily be there, in Moscow. Ergo: Nathan "the alien" is doing destroy my country.' where he wants to be. But isn't that his right, in a Europe 'My apologies, Sir.' Trask shook his head. 'But you with no borders or passports or persecution? And isn't it seem to have missed the point. Much as I appreciate your obvious how Tzonov would build all of those old barriers concern for your country, my concern is for the whole again, and draw an iron curtain across the world, if he world. To be frank, I wouldn't mind a bit if Turkur were given the chance to further his cause? Don't give Tzonov went through the Gate into Starside tonight. I him that chance, Sir!1 would quite like it — if I could guarantee that he wasn't 'I don't intend to. He is under scrutiny. Both Tzonov going to come back. Or that if he did come back, it would and . .. his cause.' The glint in Turchin's eyes was now be as a man! It's not what he plans to steal from the dangerous. 'But slowly-slowly catchee monkey, Mr Trask. vampire world that worries me, but the fact that he'll Slowly-slowly.' advertise this world to whatever is waiting in there for That's an old one.' Trask wound down a little, allowed him. That's what really worries me: that he'll bring himself the luxury of a strained smile. 'But if I may something back inside him!' advise, not too slowly.' For a moment Turchin was silent, thoughtful. Then he Tzonov's cause, yes.' Turchin didn't acknowledge said: 'Is the threat really that terrible?' Trask's smile. Treason, if we're correct. But he has many And Trask told him, 'I know as much about it as any tentacles, reaching out into almost every province of the man of this world, and you may believe me that there is USS. I can see how eventually he might even use no greater threat! The Gates are doorways to pestholes; insurrection to further his ambitions — if he could find a they could release a plague that would sweep across the way to fund it.' entire planet, and destroy or enslave each and every one 'Indeed,' Trask nodded. 'And I think he believes that of us. Eventually, we must find a way to seal those Gates he has found just such a way. Sunside/Starside is rich forever. Even the Perchorsk solution isn't good enough; in gold. There, it's a common metal...' no way, not with men like Tzonov around. And especially 'But just as I have my - what, informers? - so he has not with him in charge of it! Why not simply recall him, his spies, too.' {Turchin still didn't appear to be listening get him out of there, give him a job in Moscow where too well; but just looking at him, Trask's lie-detector you can keep an eye on him?' told him that he was.) 'In fact he controls some of our Now it was Turchin's turn to smile, however grimly. best intelligence agents. Mindspies, Mr Trask, in your 'Ah, if only it were that easy. But do you know how parlance. Or perhaps, "the Opposition"?' limited my real resources are? If I told you, you wouldn't 'In the old days, yes. And Tzonov would bring those believe me. And you advise me to recall him? Tzonov old days back again. Except we can't allow that, which comes and goes as he pleases, Mr Trask. He's a power in anyone but a raving lunatic - or a megalomaniac - must his own right. And the last thing I want to do is frighten surely see. But the damage he could do in the attempt...' him, perhaps precipitating ... whatever he 718 719 intends.' He shrugged, but not negligently. 'Please don't immersed in his studies, he scarcely noticed the days forget: Perchorsk is a fortress.' flying by. But that was a cliche, for of course he noticed Trask was mystified. 'So if we've already reached the them. And indeed they flew! Seven complete cycles to same conclusions, why are we having this conversation?' one of Sunside's ... the sheer velocity of the sun across Turchin sighed, perhaps wearily, and his shoulders the sky was a never-ending wonder to him. He could slumped a little. 'I love my country too,' he finally said. 'I actually see it move! mean, I love it as well as Tzonov - no, better than He studied engines, but only those which would have Tzonov. Because I love it for itself, not for myself. And application on Sunside. Steam-engines fascinated him so I am torn two ways. You are worried about the especially, and he acquired a tiny model to take home Wamphyri ... quite right, so should we all. But there is with him. The benefits to the Thyre would be enormous! also this question of the exploitation of another world. Couple a thing such as this to the long-dead artisan What I'm asking is, which is the greater worry? As you Shaeken's Wheel of Irrigation; why, the furnace deserts and everyone else knows, my country has been could be made to bloom! desperately depleted. Could it be you're afraid we'll get Nathan could see it clearly in the eye of his mind: with there first, and that Russia will be strong again?' a bank of wonderful Thyre mirrors focused on the boiler Trask shook his head, maybe in disgust, perhaps in of an engine through all the long hours of daylight - not disbelief. 'Let me repeat myself,' he said. 'Getting there to mention the heat of the desert itself -the requirement isn't the problem. Containing what's there already is. If for solid fuel would be minimal. And as for water: no we - I mean, if E-Branch - ever has cause to send men lack of that with Shaeken's Water Ram and Hydraulic into that vampire world, it will be as a last resort, or an Hoist, and the Great Dark River to draw upon where it attempt to destroy the Wamphyri at their source. It will coursed its way through black bowels of rock deep not be for exploitation.' beneath the surface. 'And you'll let me know if that time should come?' He looked at agriculture, the incredible variety of 'You'll be the first to know.' cultivated vegetables, and remembered the tales Lardis 'Very well. And in future we must speak - like this, Lidesci had told of The Dweller's garden: its wonderful face to face — on a more regular basis.' produce. And every chance that came his way, he 'We might very well have to,' Trask told him. procured seeds to take back with him. Oh, the Szgany 'As for now ... well, as you can see, I have a great grew their own crops, be sure, but never in such many things to do.' abundance, with the consistency, yield and high quality 'I'm sure you do,' Trask replied. of these. The potato was quite amazing, and completely Throughout, the Ministry Responsible's man had unheard of on Sunside! remained a blurred, silent figure in the background ... He went from maths to science: dynamics, which was simply another branch; or rather, the application of Days became weeks became months. Nathan was so numbers. And he enjoyed it, for here at last Nathan could see that they could be applied. But of course! No 721 720 more guesswork required to work out how many cogs to reach out his mind to find them, however far distant. were required on a wheel: the baffling mathematics of Along with all of his new scientific knowledge, his circles was a mystery no more. Not with the principle of n esoteric talent grew apace almost as if to accommodate fixed firmly in his head. the unaccustomed demands he placed upon it. And He undertook all of these studies with gusto; for this whenever he met with difficulties, the dead were there to was the knowledge - these were the benefits - he would help out... take home with him. But not all the benefits, and not all ... Except in the one area where their help would be of them harmless. For he also studied weapons and most appreciated. For not one of them knew Harry's practised with a variety of handguns, semi-automatics, greatest secret, or was able to offer a clue as to where shotguns, sub-machineguns, and grenades, on an ail-but Nathan might find the answer. The metaphysical Mobius obsolete Army firing range in the old garrison town of Continuum seemed as far from his grasp as ever. Aldershot... And suddenly, it was the middle of May. Last but not least (foremost in many ways), Nathan The changing seasons astonished Nathan, but all in all practised his deadspeak. Except now it was easy, for the his senses were becoming used to abrupt changes: the teeming dead talked back to him without reservation. ever-changing concrete 'scenery' of the cities, eye- However unintentionally, he had done himself the blurring transport systems such as cars, trains, subways greatest possible favour in going to the aid of poor little and airplanes, the dramatic variety of the countryside - Cynthia in the Hartlepool cemetery. It stood him in great especially the coastal regions of the North-east, with stead, for the dead knew now beyond a shadow of a their crumbling shale cliffs, brooding grey ocean and doubt that they had found a new champion in Nathan. plaintive seagulls, a species unknown on Sunside -and a Whatever his fight or quest was or would be, from this hundred other concepts away and beyond all previous time forward it would also be theirs. experience. Now he was much more given to taking Frequent trips to Hartlepool, Harden, Edinburgh, and things in his stride. all of the many graveyards which Harry Keogh had The one thing he was not ready for, because he had put frequented, furnished him with an almost complete it out of his mind (his yearning was too great; it was too picture of the man who had been his father, the man much of a distraction), was that which Trask sprang on whom the dead had known as the Necroscope. And him one Tuesday morning in the middle of the month. despite what Harry had been at the end, Nathan was not The resurgent tributary at Radujevac is down to its ashamed of him. For not one of Harry's many dead lowest level in five years,' Trask told him, waking him friends had a bad word for him, and as a man they up in his father's old room. 'I've arranged our flight to regretted the fact that they'd ever turned their backs on Belgrade for a week Friday. Anna Marie English has him. been out there for months now, and she's really got In every possible way the dead put themselves at things moving. She tells me that our potholers have Nathan's command; he received introductions to members of the Great Majority in many lands, and only had 722 723 been up the sump to the Gate. They can get you there same island where he'd been born. It would be Nathan's with all the stuff you've been gathering together, last shot at speaking to an expert, one of the greatest ever weapons, ammunition, anything you can carry. Plus all experts, who might yet help him. Oh, he had spoken to a that you've learned, of course, locked away in your head.' good many mathematicians, orthodox and 'lateral' 'But not the thing I most wanted to learn.' What Trask thinkers alike, but the numbers vortex had baffled them had said was still dawning on Nathan; he was still all no less than it had baffled J. G. Han-nant. It was the waking up, blinking sleep out of his eyes. 'And will some way the thing mutated, the way it wouldn't sit still - not of your men be coming with me?' for a moment - to let itself be studied. And anyway, how 'No.' Trask shook his head. 'We've made a deal with could you ever be sure you were studying the right part of Gustav Turchin. We sit still until Turkur Tzonov makes it? his move, if he makes it. Meanwhile, men loyal to Zek's interest, of course, was Jazz Simmons; her Turchin are infiltrating Perchorsk. Turchin thinks he can husband's grave was in Zakynthos close to her villa. And stop Tzonov right there, on his own ground.' mid-May in the Greek Islands is a wonderful time; it Nathan paused in getting dressed to blurt out: 'I hope would be Nathan's chance to rest and recuperate, while he fails to stop him! I'd like to meet up with that man in she . .. would have the opportunity to say those few extra my own world. Better by far, I'd like some of its things which at the end she'd never had the time to say to inhabitants to meet up with him! For by comparison, Jazz. He knew them anyway - of course he did - but a last Turkur Tzonov is only a very small monster.' fond farewell couldn't hurt. 'Still thinking about Siggi?' Ben Trask had wanted to accompany the pair, but when 'If Siggi Dam went through into Starside deprived of Zek declined he had understood. He hadn't been thinking, her senses, her mind, by that machine —' Nathan shook that was all. For despite all that had happened, all of the his tousled head, '- then thinking about her really won't accumulated evidence, and the evidence of his own lie- do us much good. But I would like the chance to avenge detector talent, it was just - no, it was stiJJ - a very hard her, yes.' thing for Trask to believe in Nathan's 'art', what he was Take care of your own first, Nathan,' was Trask's and did; as it would be for any man who was not himself advice. 'For if there's any justice in the world - and it's a Necroscope. But this was Zek's last chance to be my experience that there is - Tzonov has enough of hard 'together' with Jazz, and Ben had to accept that at least. times coming without your help.' And as he headed for the Samos, between the Aegean and the Dodecanese, door: 'Zek wants you to have breakfast with her, down in proved to be an exercise in frustration; finally Nathan the hotel. Something that's important to her.' tracked down a disciple of Pythagoras, who had come to And Nathan knew what it was ... his own conclusions about the Master's mysticism and dropped out of the Brotherhood. And so the location of Three days later they flew out to the Greek islands. Pythagoras's grave was discovered. Nathan's main interest was Samos: the teeming dead had When they got close Nathan went on alone, and as told him Pythagoras was there, buried on the self- 725 724 he reached the spot - a small olive grove on a terraced chrome on the road up above, where a last beam of hillside, above a headland with a tiny white church -so he sunlight struck between the peaks. And they knew that felt a far dim deadspeak presence; far in the sense of their guardian angels were back ... mentally remote, and dim in that of a deep, deep sleep. In a living man, this would be catatonia. In Pythagoras... Nathan had the guest bedroom. The following morning Shortly, returning to Zek, Nathan told her: 'It isn't any before he was awake, Zek got out her car and drove into good. He's way beyond my reach. J. G. Hannant was town to replenish her refrigerator. Hearing her return, right: Pythagoras couldn't face the greater knowledge of Nathan rose, showered and got dressed. By then the villa the modern world, the fact that science had outdistanced was full of great smells, and he found Zek in the breakfast him. He discovered that while his calculations were right, room where she greeted him with: 'A few of your favourite his theology was all wrong. Unable to come to terms with things.' Namely coffee, eggs and bacon. it, he retreated into his own doctrines. Yet, in fact he has And when they had eaten: 'Jazz?' he said, carefully. achieved a metempsychosis of sorts. But instead of 'Could we? Now?' She seemed uncertain. migrating soul to soul, Pythagoras has fled into the core of 'Whenever you're ready.' his own mind. To him, numbers were The All. And so at 'I've ... been thinking what to say to him.' last he's satisfied with his lot. Finally, he is the first and 'I know,' he told her, gently. 'I lay awake for the best last number: a big cipher, the Great Zero ...' part of an hour last night, listening to you tossing and turning in your room. It won't be the same for me, either. They took a hydrofoil to Zakynthos, Zek's island home in Not this time. Because it's personal. Because I know how the Ionian, and a taxi from Zante town through Porto much you miss him. But do you know what you want to Zoro and along a winding, rising road that followed the say to him? Did you work it out?' mountain's contours to the south-east. There, where tree- 'I think so, yes. There's not a lot, really. All I have to do clad spurs descended into the incredibly blue ocean, Zek is . . . not hint at what's come between us. I mean, nothing kept her villa: Harry Keogh's final refuge at the end of his came between us in life - not ever, not even the Wamphyri time here. - until the end of life itself. I have to remember that and try Then, briefly, they were free of Nathan's minders; the not to cry. drying's not like me. Not that he'll hear me Special Branch men had been left behind in the port of anyway. I have to just talk to him, through you, as if . . . as Zante, where it had taken them longer than they'd if he were Jazz. I mean, he is Jazz. And yet it can't be like anticipated to collect their hire-car. But in the afternoon, a simple telephone call...' when the cool shadows of the mountains sprawled down It was the first time he'd seen her distraught. And very across the pine-clad slopes to paint the sea dark green, unlikely that he'd ever see it again. Zek was a strong and Nathan and Zek sat out on her balcony with coffee woman. and liqueurs, they were aware of the glint of She saw the look on his face - the sadness, for her, in his eyes - and turned away. And Nathan told her: 726 727 'It won't be as hard as you think. Deadspeak can be 'Let's go and see Jazz,' he said .. . made to convey more than is actually said. It's a matter of feelings as well as words. We'll use telepathy, you and I, Between Porto Zoro and Argasi, they turned off the road so that we're closer. Jazz won't hear telepathy, but that onto a pebble track through the trees. There on a rocky way I'll be able to straighten out your thoughts if they get promontory, a small white church shone like alabaster in tangled, and relay his to you without any ... pain. If there the midday sunlight and was reflected in the sparkling is pain. But from what I know of him, from what I've waters of the bight. Between the trees and the pebble heard, Jazz was built of much the same stuff as you. It will beach, a graveyard was laid out in neat, regularly tended be all right.' plots. All of this well off the tourist beat, in as tranquil a She turned back to him. 'Will it?' There was hope in her spot as may be imagined. eyes. 'Jazz liked to fish for grouper just off the point there,' He nodded and smiled. 'Yes, I'm sure it will be.' And he Zek explained. 'And when he knew it was all over ... he was sure, for he would make it so . . . chose this place himself,' And so they went to Jazz's grave. Some hours later, on the way to her car: And Nathan made it easy for them. For both of them... Zek paused by a leaning Mediterranean pine to gaze out over the sea. 'We loved this view,' she said. At the end, when she'd said it all and couldn't hide the Nathan could well understand that. There was nothing tears any longer, Zek walked out of the cemetery and onto he wouldn't give to have Misha here right now, looking the beach, and stood at the edge of the sea. And Nathan out over that marvellous ocean with him. No sight she'd told Jazz: We're going now. ever seen in all Sunside could ever compare with it. It was nice of you to come, Jazz answered. And it's great Zek had fallen silent. Glancing at her, Nathan saw that what you've done for Zek. 1 know that Harry would be she was frowning. He followed her gaze to a boat at the proud of you. But listen, I don't like her hurting and lonely. edge of the water directly below. 'A caique,' she said. 'The So do me a big favour: if the time comes when someone first of the holidaymakers. They hire boats and find really cares, see to it that she doesn't feel guilty. I mean, tell secluded bays, like the one down there. Occasionally they her not to fee] guilty. Let • her know that 1 only want her to climb up through the trees, picnic, leave stuff behind and be happy. generally spoil things. There are more of them every year. Nathan nodded. If I'm still here when, if, that happens, I don't think I'll be able to live here much longer, not on then ... you have my promise. my own. I thought I could, but.. .' She stumbled to a halt. But not until then. Nathan believed he understood. This had been their Of course. place, and magical. But the boat was reality; stealing That's good enough for me, said Jazz ... away the last of the magic, it spoiled Zek's solitude. Nathan left Zek on the beach to get done with it in her 728 729 own way, and walked back to the car. Before leaving, he There are others here, he told her. In the trees. I'm noticed that the caique from Zek's place was drawn up on coming. And he raced for the beach ... the pebbles, but there was no one in it; and before reaching Zek's car he saw a glint of chrome in a grove of In the Greek Islands it was 1:45 p.m, but at E-Branch olive trees and knew that his minders were there. HQ, London, it was two hours earlier and the cadaverous Then, looking closer, he saw one of them - or the arms lan Goodly had just stepped out of the elevator. As he did of one of them - sticking out from both sides of the bole so, he reeled, gasped, and clutched at his temples. of a gnarled old tree. The hands were on the ground, David Chung was in the corridor. He grabbed Goodly's resting on their knuckles. The man must be sunbathing, arm, supported him, said: 'lan, what is it?' but ... his hands were so still. And in the car, the second 'H-Harry's room!' the other rasped. Special Branch man seemed asleep behind the steering 'Yeah,' Chung nodded, licking suddenly dry lips. 'Me wheel. too!' Suddenly, Nathan's blood was running cold. Sensing They went there, and met the empath Geoff Smart that something was wrong, he reached out a telepathic coming the other way. Smart's face was drawn, eyes probe. There were other minds in the vicinity, but strange startled, hands shaking as he hurried up to them. 'I ...' he minds and furtive! Recently, Nathan had used telepathy in began. But: partial conjunction with deadspeak. Instinctively, he 'We know,' they told him, almost in one voice. switched to the latter mode - In Harry's room, Goodly told Chung, 'I saw you - And the confused, astonished, utterly terrified minds plugging in the computer. You, me, Geoff, we were all of his minders were there! They were dead! here. And it's now. I mean, you have to do it now!' He stepped to the tree and round it. There, sitting in the Chung said, 'It's Nathan's earring.' He showed it to sun with his shirt open, the chest of the man on the them. 'You can't see it, but it's vibrating in the palm of ground was drenched in blood; he sat in a pool of his own my hand. I . . . I've never had signs so clear before. But blood! His eyes and mouth were open in a frozen gasp, I'm damned if I know what it means!' but a second mouth gaped scarlet under his chin and 'Plug in the machine,' Smart said, 'and maybe we'll Adam's apple. Nathan didn't need to look at the one in the find out.' car ... And as Chung made to do so, Goodly said: 'I don't Zek' He aimed a probe towards the beach. think Nathan ever used the computer after that last time - Nathan.' She was there at once, saw what was in his the time it used itself! I don't think he dared. He said mind - the monstrous picture he painted - and added her something to me once about "saving what was left of it". own knowledge to it. A man - no, two men — in the But I'm still not sure what he meant.' water. They must have got here in the caique. They have The screen blazed into life and Chung fell away from spearguns, and their thoughts are murderous/ They're the socket, sprawling on the floor. And on the screen, the under orders . .. from Turkur Tzonov! numbers vortex blazed into life! Golden equations 730 731 rotated, calculi careened, common numbers collided in a that way. But as more bullets zipped overhead, he knew frenzy of motion! And all in brilliant yellow or glowing they weren't going to make it. Both ends of the beach were gold, against a jet-black background. But in the next closed off by rocky spurs that sloped gradually into the moment the picture slowed, and froze! One massive, sea. The rocks were sharp and dangerous; climbing, the incredible calculation remained, but such a calculation pair would be slowed down; they would make excellent that no one in the room could even conceive of the targets against the black volcanic rock. question, let alone the answer. 'Into the water!' Nathan shouted. He knew Zek could swim Then... like a fish, and it seemed their only possible route. Hearing ... That answer revealed itself as the symbols flowed him and tearing off her dress, she launched herself across together and fused, forming a three-dimensional shape - a the tide-line and hit the water in a long low dive. And in golden dart - which sped from the screen like a fish another moment Nathan joined her. Back along the beach, jumping from water. It was some kind of hologram, or a the wetsuited man on the rocks slid back into the water. computer graphic brought to life: a mass of electrical 'Hard as you cari go,' Nathan gasped. Get rid of your motes hanging in mid-air, forming that translucent and trousers, she told him, cool as a breeze in his mind. Zek patently insubstantial spike shape. But however faint and was no stranger to dangerous situations. Now that the transient-seeming the thing might seem, still it was real! emotional times were behind her, she could think like the For a brief moment the dart paused, hovered, then sped old Zek again. You can't swim well in trousers. in a blur of motion out through the wall and was gone. But Nathan was no stranger to danger either. 'I already And before a man of the three could move, the computer got rid of them.' exploded! Blowing apart in a flash of fire and a shower of Then use telepathy. You can't swim and talk, but you hot plastic and electrical sparks, it left the three espers can swim and think' staggered, mouths gaping, cringing back from the Bullets plucked small spouts of water up from the reeking, black-smoking mess of the console ... millpond surface close by. And: Dive/ he told her. It was no good and they both knew it. The men in Something plucked at Nathan's shirt-sleeve as he raced wetsuits were already narrowing down the distance; they across the pebble beach, and a moment later he heard the wore fins, which powered them through the water. And phut! phut! exclamations of a silenced automatic. Zek on the beach, two more men in grey suits were sighting was running towards him along the beach; behind her, along the barrels of squat, ugly, silenced automatics. They one man was in the water and the other climbing up onto could hear the thoughts of all four, which were cold, dry land. They were in silver wet-suits and carried emotionless, deadly. These were professionals of a high spearguns. order, and so far the fugitives had been lucky. There was only one avenue of escape: towards the Coming up for air, Nathan saw large silver shapes northern end of the beach. Nathan angled his low- crouching lope to meet up with Zek where she headed 733 732 cutting white wakes on the glittering surface. And the bling down the beach from the graveyard. Their leader was Jazz Simmons, but a Jazz long gone into corruption, men on the beach were shouting directions to their and one who had known what it meant when Nathan's colleagues in the water. This wasn't going to last much minders had come suddenly among the Great Majority. longer. There were more muffled gunshots, and And now through the trees, those minders, too, were on something sliced a groove in the rounded muscle of their feet and running for the beach. Running, yes, and full Nathan's shoulder. Blood splashed among the blue. of purpose. For their muscles weren't wasted like the He felt no pain but gritted his teeth anyway, and asked: others and they still had a job to do; and what they'd done Are you OK? in life they would continue to do in death. One of them Yes. But he knew she wasn't, knew that she was very with a pair of bloody holes through his jacket and heart, nearly exhausted. the other grinning ear to ear - but grinning hideously - Then dive again. with the mouth in his face and one other, larger mouth in Surprise and shock had conspired to rob them of their his throat! But on the beach: natural energies. This would be the last time they went Phut! - phut! - phut! Three bullets went through the down, and they probably wouldn't be coming up again. rotten substance of Jazz at close range. And the man who As Zek upended and headed for the bottom, she saw fired them going: 'Vrk! Yaaaghh! Akkk!' as the grimy black flippers sliding under the surface only a short bones of one of Jazz's skeletal hands tightened on his distance away ... windpipe, forcing him to his knees. Then ... Jazz took the gun from him and thrust its silenced barrel into his gaping On the beach, the two ex-KGB men saw their prey dive mouth as far as it would go - and pulled the trigger. for the second time, glanced at each other and nodded a And the other thug, splashed with his Comrade's blood mutual affirmation. It was very nearly over. Then, as one and brains, gibbering and flailing where he retreated into of them put away his gun, the other sniffed sharply, the sea, finally tripping and going under as a host of wrinkled up his nose and said: shroud-clad avengers fell on him, sat on him, held him 'Shit! I smell shit . . . or something. We must be close down where his air came belching to the surface in a gush to a sewage outfall.' of frothing bubbles. They'd sit there, mute but determined, The other shrugged. 'So it won't matter a hell of a lot if until the bubbles stopped and the figure on the bottom lay we add to it, right? Those two are done for.' He inclined motionless. And they did ... his head towards the sea. 'Weighted down, it won't take .. . While out in the bay where the water was deep: Nathan very long for them to turn to slop out there.' and Zek had got separated. He found himself diving into a A hand fell on the speaker's shoulder and he jumped weed-festooned crevice, while she hid between boulders six inches, then fell into a half-crouch as he turned and on a pebbly bottom and looked back brought up his gun. But even as he had moved, he'd seen that hand - those shrivelled, dirt-ingrained, black-nailed fingers - and he'd smelJed them! Behind the killers, a handful of figures came stum- 734 735 the way they'd come. Their pursuers were there, his gun arm up and forward. Caught in the rush of water, he shot forward into the door. At which precise moment, searching, unrelenting, cold. Nathan had disturbed a amazed by what was happening, Nathan relaxed his grip small school of golden bream, which scattered magically on the thing. to avoid him. And he'd also disturbed a large grouper, The door closed, disappeared ... but the thug had whose sudden, startled motion filled the crevice with a passed only half-way through. And the water turned red mushrooming cloud of silt. as the lower half of his body gave a massive shudder and One of the men in wetsuits saw the eruption of muck stopped dead in the water, then slowly began settling for from the crevice and came nosing, speargun held to the the bottom. As the lower torso sank, trailing weird strings fore. Nathan needed air; he couldn't stay in here any of guts and organs, so a ring of silver wetsuit vest longer; he had to make a run for it. But run? He couldn't detached itself and floated away. A severed hand was even swim! He was done for. He drifted up out of the visible, too, drifting in the pink cloud, releasing the crevice and into full view of whoever might be waiting speargun and posing like a strange five-fingered fish in for him. He felt naked. the water ... There had been times in the past when Nathan had used the numbers vortex to hide himself. Now, Nathan! It's ... over! It was Zek, her thoughts filled instinctively - despite that it wouldn't work, because it with despair, terror, a sense of tragedy, the knowledge that soon she, too, would be able to speak to Jazz. And it wasn't a physical device but of the mind - he brought it pulled Nathan out of his shock. into being in his head; and as he did so saw a strange thing. The speargun was sinking. He grabbed it, turned in the Hovering just above the gash in the rocks, the water, saw a trail of bubbles descending into dark deeps. She was down there, drowning, dying, but she was also in regrouped school of golden bream swung nervously this his mind, her agony. And it didn't have to be. He didn't way and that. And one of them wasn't a fish but . . . a have to let it be. dart? The thing tilted in the water, seemed to aim its point at Nathan, sprang towards him. It struck him in the With every last ounce of strength, Nathan kicked for the bottom. Two strokes of his free arm, three, and they forehead even as he jerked back his head, but he felt came into view. The thug could have shot her, but he'd nothing! Until a moment later, when he felt ... something. dropped his gun and was satisfied to hold her down and He saw the numbers vortex in the eye of his mind; saw drown her. No, he was more than satisfied - he took it freeze, form a wall of numbers; saw the numbers pleasure in it. dissolve into a shape, an oblong, a door! He could see it, Nathan was behind him, but there was no cowardice in but he knew that no one else could. For even as it formed, it when he shot the man in his back. It was simply a water rushed into and through it, and several of the matter of expedience, for Zek was drowning. Jerking golden bream passed through and were gone. One of spastically, forming a backwards-bending bow of agony, Harry's doors, yes: a Mobius door! the thug released Zek's limp body and spiralled feebly The man with the speargun came speeding, trailing his into the deeps, kicking up mud and weeds as he went. gun to slipstream his body, then beginning to draw 736 737 Nathan was all in; he reached Zek, grabbed her, and itself on Harry's room, it was punched as by a massive conjured the numbers vortex ... and froze it in a pattern fist and thrown open again. And three hundred gallons of which would soon become all too familiar. A door salt sea water came pouring through into the corridor! formed, sucked at the pressured water, and sucked Zek David Chung got the worst of it and was knocked from and Nathan in, too. his feet. He wasn't hurt but simply sprawled there, with And at last he was there, in the Mobius Continuum! his fist clenched tightly on Nathan's earring. Except . . . it Darkness! no longer vibrated. And Chung knew why. To confirm it: Nothing! From Harry's room as the salty flood dispersed along Drowning! the corridor, Nathan's voice gasping his relief. And a Where to go? How to go? strangled coughing and gurgling as Zek Foener strove to Space without stars, without time ... without space! throw up all of the water she'd taken in and start to And a gush of salt water emptying out of Nathan's mouth breathe again ... ... blobs of water, great spheres of it, colliding with him, wobbling like jelly in the absence of gravity. But in the distance - oh, far, far away - a point of golden light. Whether it was there physically or merely in his tortured mind, Nathan didn't know, couldn't say. But clutching Zek's limp body to him, he struck out for it, fell towards it. It grew bigger, brighter. It was a shape. It was this shape: But as he rushed upon it, so the thing dissolved into golden atoms, and reformed into a door! And together, Nathan and Zek fell through it. . . A moment earlier, lan Goodly the precog had shouted: 'Out! Get out of here!' And the three espers had scrambled for the door, leaving it swinging behind them. Now, on the inward swing, as the door went to close 738 flesh we need to fill the stack with fighting men and beasts and build an army invincible ...' She sat back in her chair. 'Well, I've said all that before and now I've said it for the last time. That's me done and it's your Epilogue turn. So tell me, how shall it be?' And in a little while: 'Still empire-building, are you, Wratha?' said Wran, scowling and stroking his wen. 'What, and will you bring us together again under your leadership? Aye, and rob us of our get, as once before In Wrathstack, olden Starside's last great aerie of the you robbed us?' Wamphyri, the Lady Wratha sat with her so-called And Gorvi the Guile put in: 'Or is it that you've 'colleagues' and closest neighbours, the dog-Lord Canker started to fear us now that our lieutenants are up to Canison of Mangemanse on her left, and the necromancer strength and our many warriors waxed for war? What Nestor Lichloathe of Suckscar on her right. The three were brings you to this, Wratha, that you now counsel unity seated in chairs spread wide apart along one side of the and cooperation among those you've so long abandoned?' banquet table in Wrathstack's great hall, while seated At which, in a voice so low it was almost a whisper, opposite, the Lords Gorvi the Guile of Guilesump, and Nestor growled, 'What's that you say about fear, Gorvi Wran the Rage and his brother Spiro Killglance of the Gutless? Best remember: when you speak to Wratha Madmanse, glared their suspicion and Wamphyri like that, you're also speaking to Canker and me, who animosity across the broad black iron-wood expanse. fear no man, for we are united! Frankly, I'm sick of Wratha the Risen had called this meeting, and out of hearing how "clever" and "artful" you are, when your curiosity if for no other reason, the vampire Lords only real forte is cowardice! If it were my say, I'd gladly attended it. cut you off down in the stinking roots of this place and There had been the usual 'banter' - a string of taunts, let you rot there - except to desert you would leave the ripostes and scarcely concealed challenges - but now that stack undefended when ... if ...' Here, apparently lost for her guests had settled down Wratha made no bones of it words, the necromancer paused, gave a snort of disgust, but launched straight into her proposal: and sat back scowling in his chair. 'I suspect I'm speaking the minds of all present,' she Gorvi smiled a typically sarcastic, oily smile but made said, 'when I tell you I've had enough of the Szgany no answer. But Wran, immediately suspicious, snapped: Lidesci. Don't you agree? Isn't it high time we put aside 'What's that you said? About the stack being lesser squabbles, got together and wiped Lardis and his undefended, if and when?' And then, staring at Wratha: band off the face of Sunside? Only deal with the Lidescis, 'Out with it, Lady - what's all this about?' finish them for good ... the other tribes will succumb in a Canker leaned forward in his chair and coughed, 'Me, six-month, and Sunside will be ours to use as we will! Wran! Ask me what it's about.' Then we'll have all the good Szgany 740 741 Spiro Killglance, usually silent, spoke up from directly In Turgosheim: opposite the dog-Lord. 'You then. What goes on?' In the first hour of sundown, Maglore the Mage 'I read the future in dreams,' Canker barked. That's watched a menacing flypast of monsters, a grand aerial what goes on. And I have dreamed of an aerial army parade through the gorge's blustery upper regions, level circling the last aerie . . . so many of them, why, they with its rim and the topmost promontory turret of were like stink-gnats over goat droppings! Their flyers Runemanse. were a horde, and their leader - was Vormulac!' Vormulac Unsleep had ordered the display so that he There was a long silence, then Gorvi's laugh - but might review his army's fitness for war prior to its shaky for all that. 'What, and should we quiver and departure westward over the Great Red Waste, hopefully quake because you have deigned to dream? Hah! And to Olden Starside and legendary lands of plenty. For when why, pray, should we place any faith in your dreams, next the sun sank down and darkness fell on the barrier dog-Lord? All men nightmare ... and you more than mountains, then the Lord Vormulac and his many lesser most, I should think.' Generals - and all of their men, mounts, and warrior And again Wratha spoke. 'Laugh all you like, but creatures — would vacate Turgosheim en masse, hell bent Canker has the power. To deny it is purest folly. Didn't for adventure, discovery, almost certainly war, and we all laugh at his plan to call down a silver mistress definitely conquest. And to the warrior-Lord Vormulac of from the moon? Aye, we did. And do we still laugh? melancholy Vormspire, this had seemed as good a time as She's there even now, in Mangemanse! Maybe she came any to'mass his forces and test out their battle-worthiness from the moon and maybe not, but silver she is and real, in the air. and Canker's got her. Also, Nestor Lichloathe here Mainly it was a test of their flying skills in an ordered swears by Canker's dreams, for he is witness to the truth body. For patently, there could be no doubt but that they of them. Now listen: I warned you long ago that were fighting men and beasts: they were vampires all, or Vormulac would follow us out of Turgosheim. Well, he of vampire stuff, at least. Even the moderately docile will, and soon. Perhaps too soon! Will you be ready, flyers were built of metamorphic flesh vampirized united, to meet him face to face? Or would you prefer to specifically to that end. And as for the carnivore warriors hang from the battlements in chains, and die in reek and ... smoulder with the rising sun?' So that in fact the pomp and ceremony of this grand She looked from face to face, at each Lord in his turn, aerial display was as much for the glory of Vormulac as even Nestor and Canker. And not a man of them said a for any other reason; it was his chance to drill and parade word but sat there stonily in his chair, with that last the lesser Lords in his command, and show them his monstrous picture she'd painted burning vividly in his might. And it was their opportunity to rattle their battle- mind. gauntlets, flex their muscles, and feel the 'pride' of their So that at last Wratha was satisfied and knew she vampire heritage. Wamphyri! would have her way ... And so Maglore gazed out across the great gorge of Turgosheim at gloomy Vormspire with its pale orange 742 743 chimney flares and glimmery ghost-fires flickering in its himself! For a little while longer, anyway. Indeed, for while windows, and knew that Vormulac stood on a balcony Vormulac was powerful and dangerous, he wasn't the there, watching the parade. And the seer-Lord rejoiced only one with dreams of empire. And in Maglore's book at for Vormulac Unsleep, that soon he would fly off with least, he certainly wasn't worthy of such dreams ... his army into the unknown, possibly to conquest and even greater glory. Indeed, Maglore revelled in the thought In Suckscar: even more than Vormulac himself ... but for different The young Lord Nestor Lichloathe of the Wamphyri reasons entirely. came yelping awake in his bed, laved in the cold sweat of And round the rim in a mighty circle swept the myriad his nightmare and full of its terror. Even a Lord of the aerial creatures of Vormulac's command: men, flyers, Wamphyri, and a necromancer to boot, terrified of a and warriors all, and Maglore smiling and nodding his dream! But this was in no way a rare complaint: all men head as he recognized the various sigils, standards and nightmare, and vampires are no exception. For however pennants held aloft to flutter in the hot exhaust of monstrous a man may become in his prime, the dormant propulsive orifices and the tainted breeze of passage: fears of his past will take root again and grow up huge in Vormulac's own 'hanging man' emblem, Lord Grigor his dreams, and always have the power to frighten him Hakson's 'rampant rod', the virgin grandam Devetaki's anew. Except, what was Nestor anyway but a young man 'grin-scowl mask', Eran Painscar's 'spiny gauntlet', even now? There had scarcely been time for the fears of Zindevar Cronesap's 'spitted pig' (in fact a spitted man .. . his childhood to mature into this. Also, the terrors of his right down to the apple in his mouth!), and many youth were long forgotten; his youth entire, forgotten!. . . another; each contingent led by its master or mistress In the main. General, in orderly ranks, proud under its own banner No, this was a far more recent thing: a recurrent dream and respectfully distanced from the next flight in line or which Nestor had dreamed frequently — too frequently - group a-flank. The gleam of polished leather, golden ever since a certain disastrous night on Sunside; a dream ornamentation, iron-studded trappings; the cacophony of which invariably unmanned him, bringing him awake to gongs from all the manses and spires around; the rattle of this condition of mental agitation and uneasy drums and blaring of golden horns, and the bellowing premonitions of physical.. . what, decline? cough and sputter of warrior exhausts . . . It could be, of course, that he'd supped too well; there ... All very grand, and the seer-Lord hoped that were fresh bloodstains on his pillow, marking the spot Vormulac took pleasure in the spectacle. But as for where a love-thrall had lain until he'd sent her away. Or Maglore himself: he would be glad when it was over and perhaps his posture had been wrong; had he slept on his done with, and even more so to see them gone from the arm, he wondered, until it, too, had gone to sleep? gorge of Turgosheim forever. For once they were gone, Whichever, the dream - or its prophetic nature? — was they'd never get back in again, be sure! the reason he no longer slept in Wratha's bed; no, not for Ah, but these were thoughts which he must keep to all her heat. And not from fear of her, either. Rather for fear of himself. 744 745 Getting up, he paced the floor this way and that. His curtain had been left open a crack, the figure paused. And arm still tingled. His left arm and hand. But for the almost as if sensing it were observed, looked back. moment he did not look at them ... And Nestor seeing and recognizing that ravaged face: And the nightmare still fresh in Nestor's mind. Or if not those watery, half-blind eyes; blotched, papery skin a nightmare as such, a scene or memory out of the recent peeling from the ravaged bone; fretted lips crumbling over past. A monstrous detail of that night he'd spent on black teeth in shrivelled gums. He recognized the face, of Sunside, in the camp . . . in the camp of the lepers: course - That grey shape standing beside his bed, telling him - For it was his ... where he was. And Nestor bolting upright, grabbing the dangling arms of the other's cowled robe - empty sleeves which couldn't take his weight! The way they'd torn at the shoulders to come away in Nestor's hands as he fell back onto the bed. And the sight of the other's twig arms with swollen fungus nubs for elbows! Now Nestor looked at his left arm and hand, the first grey blotches there on flesh which as yet had not quite taken on the leaden aspect of a Lord of the Wamphyri. The numbness that came and went, making his wrist and hand seem lifeless, or at least insensitive. Impulsively, he bit the ball of his thumb until the scarlet blood ran. But even so, it seemed to him it ran sluggishly. And as for pain: he'd felt none of it. But now, before he could stop it, the rest of his nightmare loomed up large as life in his mind's eye; not a fragment out of the past this time, but . . . a glimpse into the future? Possibly: A lone shuffling figure, slumped shoulders, dangling arms, and swaying head with chin on chest. And a trail of footprints in the gathering dust of dereliction, the forlorn track of the lone and lonely figure, wandering like a lost soul through the empty, echoing halls of deserted Suckscar. Everyone fled, save he, and only the chittering bats for company now, in the gloom of this hideous pesthole. Then, in a chink of wan starlight where a mouldering 746 NEXT BLOODWARS Invasion - Vasagi's Story - the Wrath of Wratha! - Necroscope v Necromancer — and more!