Bloodwars

by Brian Lumley

  Are we there? Uruk inquired.

  ‘No, but I know the way,’ Nathan told him. ‘For I’ve been here before, with Lardis, on his treks. He used to come here in the old times, the good times.’

  There’]] be good times again.

  ‘I pray you are right. But let me look and listen. There may be vampires here: watchers from the army out of the east.’

  The Necroscope put out probes from his metaphysical mind and at once sensed Siggi Dam and others, in Wrathstack … and more vampires on the plain of boulders, hiding there, but none in the immediate vicinity. He made a second Mobius-jump, this time to a cluster of ruins, the stump of a toppled aerie, only a mile from the broad base of Wrathstack.

  Again, his probe went out, and discovered … one of Gorvi the Guile’s ground warriors, and a lieutenant, and a handful of thralls, deep down in the ruin’s basement! An ambush for Devetaki’s army (for surely by now the Lady was in command), should any of its elements venture this way. He couldn’t linger, not here.

  Nathan knew the layout of a stack. The design of all the aeries would be much the same, here, as in Turgosheim. But even a simpleton would know that the only possible place for a well is in the earth, in the very bowels of the stack -Gorvi the Guile’s domain. Except . .. where exactly? No good to materialize in darkness, or a place of deadly danger.

  He mentioned the problem to Uruk, and of course his deadspeak went out across all of Starside - and was heard.

  Nathaaan . ..

  And the Necroscope gasped, for he would know that sighing deadspeak voice immediately, anywhere, despite that three and a half years had passed since the last time he

  saw its owner, on the night of Wratha’s initial attack on Settlement. Jason Lidesci, Lardis’s son, with whom Nathan had grown up!

  ‘Jason,’ he said. ‘Where are you?’

  Close, but we’ve been closer. I wouJd have spoken be/ore, but to what good end? Now is different, for at least I can give you some advice. My body rests in a crevice in the earth, where Gorvi put me one night after I … after I had spoken with your brother Nestor, who is now beyond redemption! I’m down in the earth, Nathan — where I belong, as all vampire things belong - slowly stiffening to a stone among stones, aye. But don’t feel sorry for me, for I am glad that I’m here now. Better here than in Guilesump/ The place is not far from the Starside Gate, but do not seek me out. I’m one with the dark and the cold and the earth.

  ‘Jason, I …” But there was nothing, no words, to express the way the Necroscope felt. Since deadspeak conveys more than is said, however, it was in any case unnecessary.

  Hush, said the other, and listen:

  Upon a time I was Gorvi’s man, but for a thrall I was rebellious. To punish me, he put me to work tending the wells. No man knows the guts of Guilesump better than I do. Now look upon my mind, and see the secrets of the sump!

  Nathan looked, saw, and felt horror creep again upon his spine, even as it had crept in promontory Runemanse. Except the Seer-Lord Maglore’s Runemanse had known something of light, at least, while the nether pits of Guilesump were entirely lightless. It made no difference; Nathan saw with a vampire’s eyes - the dead eyes but living memory of Jason Lidesci…

  … Saw the siphon-tubes, hollow bones like pipes, descending from the low ceiling to the dark water, letting down the jelly-like veins which they contained - human veins, the Necroscope knew, of some monstrously metamorphosed siphoneer high overhead in Wrathspire’s attic -into the water to soak it up. He saw the mindless swimmers: flat and fan-shaped, like lichen spores grown huge, their

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  countless cilia flickering to propel them through the water, cleansing it of microbes, scum, dust, fallen spider- and fly-specks, and foulness in general.

  And he saw the ledges where once Jason had worked, removing cobwebs, sweeping dust and scraping slimy cavern growths from walls and ceilings. But the last aerie was under siege and there were no thralls here now; Gorvi had other work for them.

  ‘Perfect!’ he said, and took the co-ordinates direct from Jason’s mind. And because he could feel the stirring of thralls and monsters in the roots of the fallen aerie whose ruins gave him shelter, he lingered no longer but conjured a Mobius door into Wrathstack -

  - Into the subterranean cave of Gorvi the Guile’s wells. And without pause, despite that he was blind here, he knew precisely where to spill Uruk Piatra’s corpse into the dark water! After that, a moment to say his farewell, conjure another door, and return to Sunside … where Trask and Chung waited for him.

  Nathan had been right: Devetaki Skullguise now commanded Vormulac Taintspore’s army out of Turgosheim. In gloomy trog caverns at the eastern tip of the barrier mountains, Black Boris was the only Lord who was not aware that Lord Unsleep slept at last, neither him nor a handful of watchers out on the boulder plains; but the rest of them knew. That Vormulac had lived and died a true warrior, in a massive battle with a savage Szgany tribe west of the great pass. He’d killed fifty before he himself was overwhelmed, staked and beheaded (according to Devetaki’s story), and even then the liveliness within him was not finished; there’d never been such an eruption of evil as when Vormulac went up in flames!

  But as finally the Szgany savages were driven off, Vormu-lac’s last message had passed from his mind into Devetaki’s: his plea that she take command of his army and tame these terrible heathen regions. Thus he had given this

  great task, and the taking of the last aerie, into her hands.

  And after all, it was only right. For by now, hers was the greatest of all the contingents, consisting of her own forces, and Lord Wamus’s, which she’d commandeered, and now Vormulac’s otherwise leaderless force, which had been a small army in its own right. So the vampire Lords (and the Ladies, for there was still Zindevar Cronesap, Ursula Tor-spawn and one or two others to contend with) had finally succumbed to the virgin grandam’s leadership.

  Zindevar was with her now, and Devetaki had just this moment finished explaining to that Lady her plan: a female conspiracy to remove all power from the Lords and rule as a matriarchy! The Ladies would have it their way for once .. . and for always! Ursula Torspawn might perhaps rule in Turgosheim (which was after all a piddling place); Zindevar could choose between eastern Sunside/Starside, from the trog caverns in the east to the great pass, or the as yet mainly unexplored territory west of the pass; Devetaki would be happy to take the other half.

  ‘You have no preference?’ Things had swung round so rapidly that Zindevar was still suspicious.

  The land is vast.’ Devetaki shrugged. ‘But who knows, in a hundred years’ time we might argue over it? It will take that long at least to explore and tame it!’

  Zindevar saw the logic of that and laughed - and was serious in a moment. ‘Devetaki, you have a deal. But some of these men may prove hard nuts to crack. However, and since it appears you’ve already cracked the hardest .. .’ And gazing at the virgin grandam, Zindevar’s eyes were hooded.

  Devetaki ignored the remark, apparently - but putting on her frowning mask she looked out across Starside. ‘I can smell morning,’ she said. ‘Oh, sunup is way off as yet, but it’s coming. And there’s work for you tomorrow.’

  ‘Eh? For me?’

  ‘For you and yours, aye,’ Devetaki looked at her. ‘There are men in the pass with strange weapons. They are a superior breed of Szgany, who were exploring Starside when we came

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  from the east. Knowing that we would pick them off in the open, they took refuge in an ancient keep in the pass. Vormulac gave Wamus the task of clearing them out, but the bat-Lord failed and paid the price. He and his bloodsons with him.’

  Now Zindevar’s suspicions ran rampant. ‘Oh? And is it that I should pay the price, too?’

  ‘Not a bit of it. I took one of these men prisoner, and so know their plans. Come sunup they’ll head south for Sun-side and safety. Ah, but the pass is as a dog-leg! This side is darknes
s and that side is light. You’ll ambush them there, take them for your own, grow mighty with their weapons.’

  Zindevar was astonished. ‘You do this for me? Why not take the men, their weapons, the pass for yourself?’

  ‘This is the sign of our pact,’ said Devetaki. ‘I make it willingly, so that you can see I’m genuine. Now listen: there are only a handful of these men, but their weapons are mighty. However, a crafty ambush should do the job, and there are none so crafty as Zindevar of Cronespire. What’s more, when you take them you take the pass itself: from that time forward it shall be “Zindevar’s Pass”, and the keep shall be “Croneskeep”!’

  ‘You . .. would make me strong!’ Zindevar’s gasp said much for her mixed emotions.

  ‘But exactly!’ said Devetaki. ‘How can we hope to hold a world if we’re weak? Where’s the profit in a weak alliance?’

  While in her secret mind:

  Whichever way it goes, you and yours will be reduced in the fighting. I shall see to that. Nor is your contingent the strongest by any means - What? A handful of hairy women lieutenants and a bunch of cringing eunuchs? I’ll be waiting as you come out of the pass, when you are at your weakest.

  Zindevar heard none of this; she saw only that Devetaki had removed her frowning mask, replacing it with the one that smiled …

  Having eaten and rested a while, Nathan, Trask and Chung were ready and armed. Dressed in typical Szgany garb -

  dark browns, greens, but mainly greys, to blend with the volcanic colours of the mountains, their shadowy crags and slopes - and with their cheeks, foreheads, hands daubed in the stain of plants and soot of fires, they appeared as desperate a trio as Lardis ever saw.

  Looking at the Necroscope’s guerillas from some short distance away, the Old Lidesci folded his hands over his chest and thought: Aye, best look out, all you Lords and Ladies, for here comes hell!

  All of Lardis’s people knew about the Necroscope’s weird powers now, and most of them were there to see the heroes off. They formed a silent ring about a central fire, but stood well back, allowing plenty of room, so that when Nathan formed his Mobius door it would not suck them in. This was a fable spread by Lardis to allow the Necroscope his privacy. Too many people were aware of him, wanted to talk to him, touch him. The saviour of the Szgany, possibly; he was definitely becoming a legend among Lardis’s people, no less than he was among the Thyre.

  Nathan stood with head down, eyes closed, in conversation with Grinner. East of the pass, Dock’s survivors kept watch on the Wamphyri. Grinner had joined them; in the last seven hours he had crossed the pass, climbed into the heights, taken temporary command: a massive effort. The army out of the east had settled in now; sunup was less than twenty hours away; apart from a handful of marauders from various contingents, who had gone down into the east of Sunside to forage for flesh in the forests, the main body of vampire invaders was here.

  Through Grinner, Nathan had passed on his requirements to Dock’s vengeful grey brothers; noting his needs, they’d chosen various vantage points; Grinner passed the coordinates, which entered Nathan’s metaphysical mind clear as a picture, so that he knew he could home in on them with the directional instinct of … why, of a wolf, of course! And:

  ‘Ready!’ he said at last.

  As he formed his door, Trask and Chung moved closer,

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  formed a triangle with him. Then the darkness, weightlessness and even temperature of the Continuum, and a moment later the cold and starlit heights over Starside!

  Simultaneously, Trask and Chung drew breath in twin gasps, aimed their weapons. But the Necroscope at once cautioned them: ‘No!’ Trask, however, had already blocked Chung’s aim with his own body; he’d read the ‘truth’ of the situation, that this was an ally.

  For there on a bluff high over Starside, it was only the ‘evil’ visage of Grinner who greeted them. And silently, whiningly, with his head cocked on one side and fangs showing, the ‘wild’ wolf passed on more details of the vampire encampments to his blood-uncle, Nathan Keogh.

  The party farthest to the east . .. camped under a slope of sliding shale … only a handful of pines, and an outcropping boulder or two, protect them from a mighty avalanche! If you and your strange new weapons were able to bring down Sanctuary Rock, you’ll have no trouble causing havoc there! Also, the Lord who killed Dock … that one is located behind a fall in the frozen lava river, where he will keep his men and creatures from the dawn’s sunlight. But we have discovered a blowhole into which you can pour your liquid fire from above. Marvellously intelligent, Grinner had read the nature of Nathan’s weapons right out of his mind!

  Nodding grimly, the Necroscope noted the co-ordinates of an ancient fumarole over a lava cliff; and in the caves below (according to Grinner’s information), a large body of men and monsters. Smiling however coldly, Nathan glanced at the compact flame-thrower slung over David Chung’s shoulder …

  ‘Anything else?’ (He was aware of startled glances passing between Trask and Chung, as he spoke to his ‘nephew’.)

  Not for now. In and out, Uncle! Do not overstretch yourself. These are vampires and react with speed! That was Dock’s mistake, and we have lost enough of kin . .. Good advice - especially from a wily wolf!

  Nathan explained the task to his colleagues, then said: ‘First, the avalanche. Grenades, I think. We simply roll them

  down the slope. I’ll drop you off first, Ben, then David, and take my own position at the end of the line. Spaced out fifty yards apart, that will make a line one hundred yards long. And everything beneath us will be swept down onto Starside’s foothills. Let Devetaki Skullguise pick the bones out of that!’

  The Necroscope’s phrasing was perhaps unfortunate, Trask thought; it seemed to him not at all unlikely that indeed the Lady would pick the bones out of that! Nor would she let the meat go to waste …

  ‘Afterwards,’ Nathan continued, Til pick you up and we move to location number two.’ He explained what was required.

  And without further ado, they made the jump -

  - And emerged at Grinner’s precise co-ordinates. Above them, the gaunt grey crags, escarpments, peaks; solid ground, all of it. But below them, exactly as Grinner had foretold: a steep surface of sliding shale, built up over many years, and only held back from sweeping down on to Star-side by a narrow band of pines, a compacted scree barrier, and jagged outcrops which were the volcanic stuff of the mountains themselves.

  And beneath that - in a thicker band of trees and under the protective cover of shallow ledges - the movements of men and beasts . .. the mewling of complaining warriors … a flyer launching even now … the starlit glint of armour!

  Nathan dropped off Trask, then Chung, made another jump and looked back - and signalled!

  As their pins were pulled, the grenades made a triple ch-ching, almost but not quite an innocent sound in the still of the Starside night. And, drawn by gravity, the deadly eggs were lobbed, and went bouncing downhill as the Necroscope collected Chung, and paused at Trask’s location to watch the outcome — which was devastating!

  The first two grenades went off almost together, right in the mass of compacted scree, and a split-second later the third exploded just beyond the precarious barrier. Not only

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  the concussion of the triple blasts, but also their reverberating detonations rang out and echoed back to shake the mountainside, and the entire surface of the slope immediately beneath the three men at once began to move!

  They scrambled hurriedly backwards, away from the sliding ground to the solid rock above, where they sat with jaws hanging open, very nearly appalled by what they had done.

  The mountain commenced rumbling! Fifty yards west and a hundred and fifty east, the mountainside was on the move! The scree barrier caved in before a wave of cascading rocks, dirt and shale, and the line of scraggy trees was uprooted without pause or mercy! The piled debris of the heights, undisturbed for de
cades by anything louder than the mournful howling of a wolf or the pull of an eccentric moon, now found itself stampeded by an uproar manufactured in another world!

  Avalanche! And it was all (or even better, or worse) that the Necroscope had hoped it would be. It wiped the side of the mountain clean, right down to solid bedrock. The stand of pines stood no more but was swept away; the vampire encampment ceased to be, was caught up, rolled under, hurled down and buried. Men and beasts uttered startled cries, but only a few found time to scream, mewl, or rumble. A second flyer, riderless, lofted itself out of danger, but more from astonishment or instinct than fear, for there had scarcely been time for fear to register.

  In a way it had been merciful. ‘More than they deserved,’ Nathan told no one in particular. Then, because he had learned something about himself, he stiffened his resolve for the next attack. This one would not be so merciful…

  They emerged from the Mobius Continuum at dinner’s precise co-ordinates and went straight into action. David Chung loped to the grotesque molten-candle rim of a fuma-role some eighteen inches in diameter, unslung his flamethrower, primed the pilot light and laid the deadly cylinder aside, then pulled pins and dropped two grenades one after

  the other, right down the throat of the blowhole. And taking up the flame-thrower - even as the first muffled detonation sounded - he sent liquid fire roaring straight down into the unseen caverns beneath.

  Nathan and Trask had stepped cautiously to the edge of the ‘falls’, a weathered cliff of lava, and waited there with their weapons at the ready. They felt the volcanic rock under their feet shudder twice, and in another moment smoke and fumes came pouring from the dripped candle-fat curtain of the falls fifteen feet below. Screams sounded … a hideous bellowing … and the pitiful mewling of flyers. But somewhere in there, deep in the suddenly chaotic darkness, Dock’s murderers, who had eaten him, might survive still, and Nathan felt no pity.