Bloodwars

by Brian Lumley

  But still Nathan couldn’t believe it…

  Back at the camp, Lardis wasn’t quite ready for Nathan’s game. Nathan used the extra time to explain what he’d

  learned to Ben Trask. Trask, if anyone, would know the truth of it. But after he’d heard it Trask could only shake his head. ‘If you tell me the truth of something, I’ll know it at once,’ he said. ‘Also if you tell me a lie. But you’re only guessing, and so I’m at a loss, the same as you.’ They left it at that.

  The game was a simple thing. On flat ground a little way out on the savanna, Nathan formed the Lidesci tribe up into a fairly tight-packed circle, two to three figures deep. The ring was maybe fifteen paces across. Family groups stayed together, likewise, couples and friends as best possible. A long rope was passed around the circle, so that everyone could take hold of it, and then Nathan explained:

  ‘If ever we’re threatened by the Wamphyri, as soon as we have the first warning, we hurry here and take up this rope. So remember your positions. Now, this rope is your lifeline. Don’t let go of it!’ As he stepped to the centre of the circle where all could see him, mothers took up their children and husbands held onto the rope and wives both.

  ‘You may have heard something of what I can do,’ Nathan said. ‘Some of you, maybe a lot of you, have even seen it. And a few have gone with me into . .. another place. But it’s a very dark place and doesn’t feel the same as here. It feels like you are falling, but you’re not. So in this other place, it’s best to keep your eyes closed. Also, it’s best not to talk, and not even to think. Close your eyes and keep silent now.’

  They did so, and he said, ‘Now this time is just a trial. When I join the circle and pull on the rope, I want to see how fast you can walk - don’t run - towards me.’ He did so, and just like trusting children the Lidescis followed his instructions to the letter. As they passed him, he tapped their arms saying, ‘Good! That’s fine. Just keep going. That’s very good.’ Until they stood clustered together in a group with their eyes still closed, holding onto the rope.

  ‘Open your eyes,’ said Nathan. ‘Now I’m going to position men and women among you who have been in my secret place before you. As you see, they’re not afraid. Neither

  601

  600

  must you be.’ The party from Earth took their places in the new circle, likewise Lardis, Andrei, Kirk and Misha. And Nathan said, ‘This time it’s no practice but the real thing. And believe me, you’re going to a wonderful place! Just hold onto the rope and remember what I told you, that you may feel like you’re floating or falling - but you’re not, and it’s only for a few moments.’

  Nathan conjured a door and guided them through it; it took no more than forty-five seconds maximum. The savanna was empty, and Nathan followed his charges into the Mobius Continuum .. .

  … and led them out again into —

  ‘- A wonderful place!’ Misha gasped. One of the first out, she had opened her eyes at once. Of the rest of the Lidescis: a good many had sat down abruptly as the return of gravity unbalanced them. Others staggered a little, blinking their eyes in the unexpected light; all clung to the rope. Some of them - a small handful and mainly curious children - had in fact opened their eyes within the Mobius Continuum; Nathan had heard their gasps of awe, even terror. These were the ones who clung more tightly yet to the rope, and plumped down that much more abruptly as gravity returned! Several little ones cried their shock, their alarm - shortly turning to cries of wonder, in turn rising to a swelling babble as the Lidescis gazed all about.

  They stood on the fertile rim of Crater Lake, rising like a false plateau from the surface of the furnace desert. All of a mile across, with a raised inner caldera, the place was most probably an old meteoric crater. To the west, a river entered through caverns in the base of the crater wall, formed a great blue lake within the basin, emptied through a gap in the reef-like central node, and so down into the earth again. It was the Great Dark River which, during his travels among the Thyre (it seemed several ages ago), Nathan had followed even beyond this place, under the sprawling Great Red Waste, and so into Turgosheim’s Sunside.

  Now he calmed his charges. ‘A Thyre place,’ he said. ‘And

  the Thyre are remarkable people. Soon they’ll be up and about, out of their deep caverns, working in the oases. Now I’ll tell you what’s so wonderful about it. It’s because -

  ‘Let me guess!’ Misha stopped him. ‘It’s because … on the edge of the forest we were in darkness, the twilight before the dawn, while here … now we stand in sunlight!’ Sunup, yes, and the dazzling southern horizon as fiery as a perfect spiral nebula viewed edge-on, whose golden central blister threatened to supernova at any moment and burn an entire galaxy. But it was a false impression, for as ever this would be a long, tortuously slow rising. And the slower the better, for the longer the day.

  Nathan smiled and nodded. ‘Exactly right. For we’re a good many miles south of where we were. Even at night -even if the Wamphyri knew where we were - they probably wouldn’t follow us here. South is towards the sun, and therefore dangerous. But as close as this to sunup . .. they’d never chance it!’

  Looking all around, he saw the children going down to the water’s rim, and said, ‘A wonderful place, yes — but don’t let the little ones stray too far, for we can’t stay. The Thyre have done us a favour: we have the use of this place in time of danger. So let’s not abuse their hospitality. This time was simply a visit, an opportunity to try out our escape route in case the time should come when we have to use it in earnest.’

  He needn’t have worried about the children, for Anna Marie was with them. Indeed, it seemed she couldn’t be separated from them, especially the orphans. Lardis called them all together again anyway, and formed them up; they played the Necroscope’s wonderful ‘game’ again; Nathan returned them to the temporary camp at the edge of the forest…

  ‘Wolf!’ Zek Foener cried out, her hands flying to her temples, an amazed expression on her face.

  Nathan had been momentarily distracted, surrounded by

  603

  602

  Lardis and his senior men, who seemed intent on pounding his back to a pulp: their way of congratulating him on his new and apparently foolproof safeguard against the Wamphyri. But within a few seconds of emerging from the Mobius Continuum, Zek was on duty, scanning the area telepathically to ensure that nothing had changed during their short absence.

  Now Nathan stepped quickly to her side, touched her, and was at once in contact with her telepathic probe. It was Grinner - trying to contact Nathan, not Zek!

  Uncle .. . Necroscope . .. I’m trapped!

  Zek reeled, and cried again: ‘Wolf! For a moment I … I thought it was my Wolf, except he’s dead in another world.’

  ‘No,’ Nathan told her. ‘Not your wolf, mine! Grinner, yes, in trouble with the Wamphyri, on Starside!

  He read the co-ordinates right out of dinner’s mind, but before he could act on them picked up a second probe trying to make contact with him! It was Jasef Karis’s dead-speak. Nathan! There are newcomers among the teeming dead! Men, some of them! In the great pass - a battle!

  The great pass .. . Turkur Tzonov’s men, it could only be. Nathan had intended to meet them in a few hours’ time, at the Sunside end of the pass. Now, on the gloomy, winding floor of the canyon, they must be under attack from Deve-taki’s forces, her final throw before sunup.

  A wolf of the wild on the one hand, and human beings on the other - yet Nathan didn’t hesitate; or only for a moment, to speak to Lardis:

  ‘Get some men ready … eight of them .. . with hell-land weapons .. . wait here!’ Then he loaded his own crossbow with a now precious exploding bolt, conjured a door, and was gone —

  - To a place in the barrier mountains, on Starside.

  It took just a moment for the picture to sink in, but it was a near-fatal moment:

  A lieutenant and a senior thrall, one red-eyed and the other feral, both gauntleted,
closing in on Grinner where he

  stood, stiff-legged on the rim of a sheer cliff that fell away for hundreds of feet! The intention of the vampires was clear: this wolf of the wild was prey. Whether he fell to his doom or they hacked him to death made no difference: wolf-heart was a delicacy, and meat is meat whatever its source.

  Nathan had emerged from the Continuum just a few paces to one side of the tableau. The lieutenant immediately sensed him, crouched low, swung towards him and lifted his gauntlet defensively. Simultaneously, the thrall edged closer to the snarling wolf at the edge of the cliff. But Grinner was wounded, panting his pain, his side torn and bloody. His energy was about used up. He had strength for a final leap, perhaps into eternity.

  A rock jutted on the rim, almost teetering there. Nathan was separated from Grinner by this volcanic node, also by the lieutenant — who now took two swift paces towards him!

  Nathan swung his crossbow to and fro. Shoot at the thrall, and he himself would be at the mercy of the lieutenant. Fire at the lieutenant, and it might be too late for Grinner. He sent a mental picture of his intentions, and an urgent question: Have you the strength?

  Yes, Grinner answered — and acted!

  He leaped for the rock, bounding to its uneven apex. The thrall swung his gauntleted fist while Grinner was in midair, but Nathan had already triggered his bolt. Passing close to the lieutenant, it struck the thrall in his shoulder and threw him off-balance. The crossbow thrummed empty in Nathan’s hand, and the lieutenant laughed in his face, showing the great gape of his jaws. He reached out to grab the Necroscope by the throat, drawing his gauntlet back to strike a killing blow. But:

  Now! Nathan sent.

  The bolt in the thrall’s shoulder exploded, cut short his agonized mewling, sent a spray of scarlet up into the startled air. Grinner made his second leap, struck both Nathan and the lieutenant square-on, so that all three fell in a tangle

  604

  605

  over the rim. The intended blow never fell on Nathan. The lieutenant’s scarlet eyes bulged and he tried to grab the cliff face with his gauntleted hand. Briefly he clung, then slipped. But Nathan and the wolf had already fallen away from him, through a Mobius door.

  Before the door collapsed behind them, they heard the lieutenant’s shriek dwindle to a flutter of air …

  … And angrily, Nathan asked: How?

  I failed to take my own advice, Grinner answered. I told you to hold back, and myself went forward! Three grey brothers were with me, but when the vampires appeared I played the lure and separated myself from the rest. I was trying to spy out a few of their hiding places for you, for the morning. Those two followed after me; 1 was just a wolf and they would try to take me. The lieutenant was lucky enough to strike me with his weaponed hand. Finally, exhausted, I called for help and you heard me.

  No, someone else heard you, Nathan answered. And you were lucky, too, for she’s known wolves before, that one.

  But Grinner didn’t answer - or only with an awed silence, as he experienced the Mobius Continuum. And, held fast in Nathan’s arms, the great wolf whined, growled, finally panted:

  Uncle . .. directions/

  What?

  I sense them . .. here! Everywhere I’ve ever known … all the time I have lived, and times as yet unlived! This place is all places, all times! Directions, yes! This place is - everywhere! My father’s world, and yours, and others! They are here, too; and forces that fight with the moon; and powers that were born in the stars! DIRECTIONS!

  Nathan would know more, but had no time for it, not now.

  He returned to the camp, emerged from the Continuum and at once put Grinner down. And to Zek and Misha as they stepped anxiously forward: ‘See to him. He’s not that badly hurt.’

  Lardis and his men were ready; among them, Trask, Chung, Carling, Andrei and Kirk. ‘Trouble in the pass,’ Nathan told them breathlessly, as he reloaded his crossbow. ‘Men against monsters. But be careful: we might yet find problems with both sides! Remember, these were Tzonov’s men.’

  He took them to the pass, where as yet dawn’s light crept slowly from the south. At the southern end of the pass where it opened into Sunside, no sign of trouble. Nathan made a second jump, deeper into darkness, and as his party emerged —

  - A powerful reek of gunpowder, drifting white smoke, and a stumbling, sobbing figure moving towards them through a pale, writhing ground mist. A survivor, human. But in the broad ribbon of sky overhead where the walls of the pass went up, there were things that were not human!

  Two manta shapes, Wamphyri flyers, pulsed against the thin and weary stars. One of them had no rider; it listed, and the webbing of its wings seemed patterned with spangles where starlight gleamed fleetingly through tattered membrane. The other creature was a little lower and carried two riders, one of whom was female. Seated forward of the long saddle - wearing armour and a half-mask of lead - she was obviously a Lady of the Wamphyri. Behind her, the slighter male figure held on as best he could.

  The half-mask told Nathan the Lady’s identity; quick as thought he fell to one knee, aimed his weapon at the swooping manta shape as it slipped north into the shadows of the pass. But too late, for she’d gone. And disgusted with himself that he’d let the chance slip, ‘Devetaki!’ Nathan grunted.

  He cast a telepathic probe, caught only her anger as she shielded her mind. But her passenger wasn’t as adept as Devetaki; Nathan could hear him as clear as day, telling her, That was him down there on the bed of the pass! The one that Tzonov and I told you about! Now you’ve seen for yourself how he can simply appear like that! You can forget

  607

  606

  those weapons, Devetaki, for with the Necroscope and his fighters down there .. .’

  But: ‘Be quiet, fool!’ she cut him off. ‘Can’t you heed your own warnings? He listens - with his mind!’

  Then the silence was shattered as several of Nathan’s colleagues opened up with their automatic weapons, sending a stream of bullets uselessly after Devetaki, and another into the sky where the half-crippled flyer gained altitude. Higher still, two more flyers appeared in the ribbon of sky, wheeled on the wind and sped north. Lieutenants of Devetaki, probably.

  ‘Hold your fire!’ Ben Trask shouted over the din. ‘It’s a waste of ammunition!’ The firing ceased, and its echoes came bouncing back from the canyon walls like a gradually receding drum roll…

  Trask went to talk to the sole survivor, and Nathan took Andrei and Kirk forward with him into what had been the battle-zone; a short jump of a hundred and fifty yards down the pass, to a misty depression just a quarter-mile south of the dog-leg bend. And there they found the ugly debris of war.

  There, too, they stood still in the thin, swirling mist, while the Necroscope ‘listened’ in his fashion. Nothing lived here that he could tell, not any longer. At least, there were no thoughts to detect with his telepathy - but the deadspeak aether was alive with fear and bewilderment! That was always the way of it, and it would be no use trying to talk to these recently dead. They would be confused for some time to come.

  Burning flyers and a small aerial warrior lay crumpled where they’d fallen or been blasted to a standstill and hosed with liquid fire; their smoke drifted up, making the air vile. Several small craters still issued wisps of smoke where grenades had exploded. The rocks were spattered red. The faces of the men, where they had faces, were filled with frozen terror.

  The bodies were … terrible! And some of them might

  even be dangerous. Not the men, no - not the human corpses - but some of the fallen lieutenants had been vampires for … oh, a long time. It surprised Nathan to find more females than males. Then, looking at them, it dawned on him who or what these evil-looking women had been: Zindevar’s creatures, aye. The Necroscope remembered her reputation from his Turgosheim days. And proving it was simple: the one or two men were eunuchs!

  Meanwhile, the remainder of his party, with the exception of Trask and Lardis, had arrived. Ther
e’s work for you here,’ Nathan told them. ‘All of these bodies must be burned. But be careful, and don’t touch the vampires or their creatures.’ He let Andrei Romani and Kirk Lisescu show them how to pile pine branches fallen from the heights against the corpses, and as they saw to it, went back to Trask and Lardis.

  The single human survivor of the fight, a slim, nervous-looking CMI Operative, was talking. ‘So that’s what it was all about: greed, a chance for promotion . .. but mainly stupidity, looking back on it. Well, I wasn’t the only one. Paxton fooled just about everyone in his command, even the people above him. I was close to him, I admit it - as close as anyone - but I didn’t realize how badly gone he was, how obsessed, until the cavern of the Gate at the Refuge . ..’

  ‘How did Paxton and his team get there so quickly?’ Trask wanted to know.

  The operative looked at him, shrugged. ‘He knew that an enemy - he called him an “alien” - had defected to E-Branch from somewhere in the Urals, and that he would be heading for the Refuge at Radujevac. Borders don’t count for a lot these days, as you know, and CMI had safehouses in Bucharest, Belgrade, other places. Paxton had been out there for some time, just waiting for it to happen. But no one in his command, his “select group”, as he called us, knew just what he was up to or how far he would go. He did initially have orders to stop this alien returning to … wherever.’ Again, his shrug. This place, I suppose. But after

  609

  608

  we had taken the Refuge the orders were suddenly rescinded.’

  Trask nodded. ‘But that didn’t stop him.’

  ‘No. Where the way was blocked he blasted his way through. He found spare air-tanks, inflatables, everything we needed, in the Refuge. He took his entire team up the river to the shining Gate thing. And that was when . .. when I found out that he was raving! But too late by then. He was so, I don’t know … plausible; he looked sane! He told the men they were going through into another world, and that they’d come back rich. Except they had probably seen through him by then; they weren’t much interested in rich. They had wives, children, homes, lives to live.