"At least they're impartial," thought Varis. "They're going to kill us all."
He turned and saw Lord Yarven at his side. Yarven had sheathed his sword and stood quietly watching the slaughter around him.
Varis grabbed Yarven by the arm. "Don't just stand there, run! We must get clear of the woods or we'll all be killed!"
Yarven didn't move. "I assure you I am in no danger. Why should I fear my brethren?" He smiled and Varis saw red lips and long white fangs in the bearded mouth.
It was the last thing he saw.
Smashing aside all who opposed him with his great staff, Ivo broke through into a little clearing and found himself facing three robed figures.
There was a man and a woman, both tall and thin with white faces and glittering eyes, both gorgeously robed. Between them stood a smaller man, bearded and more plainly dressed." Their glittering eyes seemed to glow brighter as they fixed upon Ivo.
Ivo froze on the spot, giving a great sob of fear. "Lord Zargo," he whispered fearfully. "Lady Camilla and Lord Aukon. The Three Who Rule."
Ivo was a brave man but it is hard to face your enemies when you have seen them die once already. Breaking the spell of fear with a mighty effort he crashed on through the forest.
The three vampires were about to follow but at that moment three soldiers, united in flight, blundered into the clearing. They stopped in astonishment at the sight of the three robed figures.
For a moment the vampires hesitated - but Ivo was moving away, their hunger was great and here was hot fresh blood for the taking. The vampires hurled themselves upon their prey.
Blundering on through the woods, Ivo felt mingled feelings of relief and shame. He had escaped but men were dying all around him. He came to a path and saw a vampire crouched over a prone figure. Almost without thinking Ivo snapped his great staff in two and thrust the jagged end of one broken half deep into the vampire's left side, piercing the heart. With a terrible shriek the dying vampire rolled from its victim, and Ivo saw he had saved the life of one of the Black Guard. It didn't seem important which side the man was on: there was only one side now.
He helped the man to his feet. Staring at his rescuer, the dazed guard drew his dagger but Ivo plucked it from his hand. "Time for that later. We've a common enemy now."
Ivo snatched a branch from a tree, trimmed it with the dagger, sharpened the end and thrust it into the guard's hand.
"Come on, there's work to do! Remember, it must be in the heart! A spear might do. Or find an axe and behead them. Tell the other soldiers." They headed back towards the battle.
Not far away, Yarven rose from Varis's body, wiping bloody lips, and found himself facing Tarak. The guerilla leader had a bow in his hands, arrow nocked in the string. As Yarven advanced towards him Tarak drew back the bowstring and fired.
The arrow thudded into Yarven's heart. Yarven staggered back for a moment - and then sprang for Tarak's throat.
Bernice and Romana were galloping along the road that skirted the forest. Just ahead of them rose the summit of a low round hill. For quite some time they'd been hearing the confused sounds of battle and the screams of dying men. The terrible sounds faded at last as they left the battle behind them.
They'd found their horses where they'd left them, and no one had tried to stop them from getting away, but Bernice still felt uneasy. She rode up alongside Romana. "Shouldn't we go back and try to do something?"
"What sort of something?"
"Intervene - break it up. I've got a blaster."
"And what do you propose to do with it? Shoot down people from both sides till they all agree to behave? They'd kill you first. No, if they're hell-bent on slaughtering each other - and they are - there's really nothing we can do."
Romana could be as ruthlessly practical as the Doctor himself.
Bernice still felt guilty. "All the same, those screams . . "
"Those screams are the best possible reason to keep going."
"What do you mean?" "That's not the kind of noise men make when they're fighting. Those were screams of fear. I think there's something worse than a battle going on in those woods tonight. It sounds more like a massacre. I want to get as far away from the Tower as I can. I'll feel better once we're over that hill. I shan't really feel safe until it's daylight."
"You don't really think they'd follow us this far?"
"You don't know how fast those things can travel."
"Rubbish," said Bernice, more to reassure herself than anything else. "We've been riding for ages and.. ."
Suddenly her horse reared up, almost throwing her, and Romana's grey mare reared up as well.
Three ghastly figures had appeared on the track ahead of them. There was a man and a woman, both tall and thin with white faces and glittering eyes, both gorgeously robed. Between them stood a smaller man, bearded and more plainly dressed.
With an effort, they regained control of the nervous horses.
"It's them," whispered Romana. "Zargo, Camilla and Aukon. The Three Who Rule." She glared indignantly at the three vampires.
"Go away, you're dead! You're just piles of dust. I saw you die!"
"We do not die," said Zargo in a flat, dead voice.
"We always come back," sighed Camilla. "Always!"
Aukon said softly, "And now we have come for you."
22 SARGON'S CASTLE
Bernice struggled to control her fear. "Won't you introduce me to your friends? Though, come to think of it, one of them does look familiar."
"They're Vampire Lords," said Romana steadily. "Zargo and Camilla and Aukon, their High Priest. They lived in the Tower when the Doctor and I first came here. I rather thought we'd dealt with them."
"Not very effectively, it seems."
In the road ahead, the three vampires waited, smiling. Camilla toyed with a little silver dagger at her waist.
"Have you got any of that garil flower?" asked Romana.
"Used it all up on my last vampire. I'm fresh out of sharpened stakes as well."
"Then we've got just one chance - and I don't pretend it's a very good one."
"Which is?"
"Ride straight at them - ride through them if you can, and on over the hill. If we can escape them till dawn..."
Romana leaned over, whispered in the grey mare's ear, and touched it lightly with her knees. The grey mare sprang forward. Bernice, not so well acquainted with her mount, had to use less subtle methods. She jabbed her heels into the black stallion's flanks, slapped it hard on the rump and yelled "Hiiii-yah!" into its ear. The already nervous stallion shot forward after the mare.
The three vampires waited unmoving as the two horses thundered towards them. At the last possible moment they floated aside and up into the air. Then Zargo and Camilla swooped down upon the two riders.
Bernice became aware that there was someone on the saddle behind her, thin white arms gripping her fast. She looked over her shoulder and saw Camilla's white face, saw red lips draw back to reveal pointed teeth.
With a yell of fear Bernice hurled herself backwards from the saddle. She crashed to the ground, thankful that the vampire was underneath to break her fall. Camilla's body felt incredibly strong and wiry, as if made from springs and hard rubber. The impact of the fall knocked them apart and Bernice rolled over and got to her feet. Camilla stood waiting in front of her.
She saw Zargo drag Romana from the saddle and hurl her to the ground. She helped Romana up and they backed away from the advancing vampires, only to find Aukon cutting off their retreat.
Bernice and Romana stood back to back as the vampires advanced, claw- like hands outstretched. Bernice drew her blaster. She knew it was hopeless, but it was better to go down fighting.
Suddenly a deep voice rang out: "Begone, accursed creatures of the night!" A white-bearded, white-robed figure stood on top of the hill. Behind him appeared soldiers with blazing torches. "Begone!" boomed the white-robed figure again. Its arm swept down and a ball of flame sizzled down from the hill
, exploding at the feet of the vampires in a blaze of golden light that lit up the surrounding countryside like day. The vampires fled.
The bearded man ran down the hill towards them, followed by torch-bearing soldiers. Two of them recaptured the grey mare and the black stallion, a third led up a great white horse for the old man.
"Quickly," he said. "These evil creatures fear the light of fire, since it reminds them of dawn, but they can bear it if they must. We must leave here before they realize that mine was but a false dawn."
Even in the middle of a life-and-death crisis, Romana didn't forget her manners. "We owe you our lives, sir," she said. "May we know the name of our rescuer?"
"I am Lord Sargon," said the old man simply. "And you, I think, are the Lady Romana."
"We were just coming to find you!" cried Bernice.
"Fortunately, my dear, I was also just coming to find you," said the old man courteously. "Now, I suggest we leave this evil place before the vampires come back and find all of us."
He swung himself easily into his saddle, and Bernice and Romana did the same. They rode to the top of the hill where more soldiers waited, holding horses. When everyone had remounted, the old man led the way down the hill and across the flat plain beyond, Romana and Bernice riding close behind him. The soldiers followed, their torches blazing a fiery trail across the darkness.
Bernice was never sure how long they rode. The events of the night and the last-minute escape from the vampires had left her curiously light-headed and she felt no fatigue. The first pale streaks of dawn were in the sky by the time they rode up to a many-turreted castle on the brow of a low hill. They clattered through a stone arch into a cobbled courtyard, and castle guards armed with blasters came forward to take the horses. More servants ushered them into a big kitchen with a blazing fire, where they were given hot soup and soothing cordials.
"No formality tonight," said Lord Sargon firmly. "Tomorrow, when you have both rested, I shall receive you in a more fitting manner."
Bernice was shown to a tapestry-hung chamber with a fire in the hearth, fur rugs on the stone floor and a curtained four-poster bed. A maid helped her into a sleeping robe and before she knew it she was sound asleep.
When she awoke next morning the sun was already high in the sky. A maid appeared with a steaming mug of herbal tea. When she'd finished it, she was shown to an adjoining chamber, the floor of which dipped to form a giant bowl filled with bubbling water.
Bernice braced herself for a cold plunge, and was amazed to find the water pleasantly warm. Wrapped in a vast towel she looked around for her clothes. Her safari jacket was hanging on a carved chair, but everything else seemed to have vanished.
"Your garments are being washed, my Lady," said the maid. "There are others for you to wear meanwhile. When you are ready, Lord Sargon and Lady Romana await you on the terrace."
The other clothes consisted of an assortment of under-dresses and robes that left Bernice feeling like a fairy princess in a holovid historical. As soon as she was dressed, the maid led her along the stone-flagged corridors of the castle. It was a pleasant, airy place built from an attractive pale grey stone, with frequent windows and archways to let in the light. It was quite different from the Tower, thought Bernice. No doubt that was because it was a proper castle, not a converted spaceship. They climbed endless flights of winding stone stairs and came out onto a sunny terrace. There she found Lord Sargon and Romana sitting around a stone table enjoying bread and cheese and fruit, and drinking wine from silver flagons. She sat down to join them.
The terrace looked out over rolling green countryside that looked very much more pleasant than anywhere else she'd seen so far. She said as much to Lord Sargon.
"You must not judge us by Ivo's village and the Tower," he said. "That part of the country is tainted by the evil that it harboured for so long."
"And is harbouring again," said Romana. "Those creatures you rescued us from were the original Three Who Rule, though how they have managed to survive and return ..."
"If there is one thing I have learned about vampires," said Lord Sargon, "and I like to think that I've learned a great deal, it's that they cling with incredible strength to life - or rather, to their own version of life, which is living death. They seem to have re-established themselves in the Tower. There must be a sizeable colony of them."
"More than just the three we saw last night?" asked Bernice.
"I fear so," said Sargon gravely. "As soon as the sun rose I sent a scouting party back to the area. They have just reported back: He paused for a moment. "There are bodies all over the woodland area: a patrol of guards and a considerable number of armed peasants. All dead, and all drained of blood. For the vampires to overcome so many... "
"They were helped by the fact that guards and peasants were busy killing each other," said Romana bitterly. She gave Sargon an account of the background to last night's events.
"I'm sure you're right," said Sargon when she'd finished. "When the fighting was at its height, the vampires must have attacked both sides at once. Even so, such slaughter could only be the work of a considerable number."
"It's odd though," said Bernice. "I only ever saw one vampire actually in the Tower. The tall one from the three we saw last night."
Romana nodded, remembering. "Lord Zargo."
"And right after that I got a party of villagers to search the whole place. We didn't find a single vampire, let alone a nest of them."
"No doubt their hiding-place eluded you," said Lord Sargon. "They are very cunning." He paused for a moment, stroking his beard with a long white hand. "The terrible events of last night do offer a ray of hope. The fact that the peasants and the guards, the soldiers of the Lords, all suffered alike may unite them against a common enemy."
"I'm afraid it's not that simple," said Bernice bluntly. "As far as I can gather, Lords and vampires are all mixed up in people's minds. They're going to need a lot of convincing that you're not just trying to bring back the bad old days."
Romana gave her a reproving look. Lord Sargon smiled sadly. "I am afraid that what you say is all too true. Many of the Great Houses bore the taint of vampirism. When the vampires were overthrown many Lords over-reacted. They tried to pretend that vampires did not exist, had never existed. Naturally enough, they were not believed."
"But you thought differently?"
"I felt that no problem can be dealt with unless its existence is admitted. So against much opposition, I started my vampire museum. Would you care to see it?"
Bernice felt she'd had enough vampires to last her for a while but Romana, polite as ever, said, "We'd love to."
The old man led them down several flights of stone stairs to a large chamber underneath the castle. It had a vaulted stone roof supported by stone pillars and to Bernice's astonishment it was lit by softly glowing glass globes in holders on the walls.
The room was filled with display cases holding maps, charts and all kinds of exhibits. Proudly the old man showed them round. "If we begin here, the cases tell the story in the correct historical order ..."
The early cases concerned the history of the planet. Before the arrival of the Great Vampire it had been a still-traditional society, but one in the middle of a sudden flowering of scientific and technological breakthrough - like Earth, thought Bernice, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
"We had discovered steam power," said the old man proudly, pointing to a case of early designs and models. "I have managed to recreate some of these discoveries. We have a generator beneath the castle which gives us light and heat."
He took them to another case filled with cumbersome-looking muskets and blunderbusses and enormous bell mouthed pistols. "We had discovered projectile weapons too, and simple explosives."
"That thing you chucked at the vampires!" said Bernice.
"An invention of my own," said Lord Sargon. "It is a great success at village festivals, and as you saw, it has other uses." He led them to an alcove
which was covered with a curtain.
"Then the Great Abomination descended upon our world and the Age of Darkness began. A giant vampire appeared above our planet, wounded, apparently dying. Here is the moment as the greatest of our ancient artists imagined it."
He drew back the curtain to reveal a horrifying picture. A great beast, part man part bat, hovered in space, blood dripping from a gaping wound in its leathery-skinned side. It had huge wings and a massive rat-like head, with great savage fangs.
23 VAMPIRE HISTORY
Bernice swallowed hard and forced herself to examine the painting. "How big was it, exactly?"
Sargon led them to another case. It held an enormous claw-like hand, blackened and twisted as if in some catastrophe.
"You can judge from this. I recovered this from the burial ground close to the Tower."
"So it was you," said Bernice sharply. "Did you make off with a lot of other bits as well?"
"It's true I took specimens of various bones," said Sargon apologetically. Bernice looked round.
"Where are they then? I don't see them here?"
"They crumbled when I tried to prepare them for display. The claw was all I could manage to preserve."
"Well, you've ruined an extremely valuable specimen," said Bernice crossly.
Romana was clearly embarrassed. She turned to Lord Sargon, as if to make amends for Bernice's rudeness. "It's a wonderful picture, Lord Sargon, and a wonderful museum. As it happens I can tell you where the creature came from. We don't usually talk of these things, but if anyone has a right to know then you do."
"I should be eternally grateful, my Lady."
"It all goes back to the early history of the Time Lords - the Doctor's people and mine. There was once an entire race of these creatures. According to the Doctor, each one had the strength to drain the energy from an entire planet. We fought a war with them and destroyed them, all except one, their leader the Great Vampire. It fled, wounded, from the last battle and disappeared."
Doctor Who - [New Adventure 29] - [Vampire Trilogy 2] - Blood Harvest Page 19