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these bloodlusting lieutenants and thralls vied among each other, to see who would be
Lords in their turn. This had left them weaker than ever... though never weak in the
human or wolf sense, you understand. No, for they were still terrible creatures.
'Anyway, my brother and I and other leaders of various wolf packs, we had seen
these aspirant Lords fighting one another on the boulder plains; we had witnessed their
skirmishes and small but vicious bloodwars in the ruins of shattered aeries. And all such
had been reported to Nathan, who was then prompted to make a plan. It was time, he
said, to end this thing and finish them off for good in one last surprise attack, one final
battle  to be fought on their own ground!
'How bold! To confront the vampires of Starside in Starside itself! Impossible for
the Szgany on their own, too terrible to consider. The distances involved, and
movement in the open over a pitiless boulder wasteland, and the mindless monsters
waiting there. Ah, but by use of Nathan's instantaneous mode of travel, by no means
impossible...
'In the hour when the sun rises over the mountains to shine across the territory of
the vampires, Nathan armed great bodies of men and "moved" them to the mouth of the
pass into Starside. Of course, the sun hangs low in Sunside's sky, so that when its rays
sweep over the mountains they never touch Starside's floor. But even so, sunup to
vampires is as the darkest of dark nights in a wild unknown place to men, or a deadly
sliding scree avalanche to a wolf: a very terrible thing to contemplate! Which is why they
burrow in their holes when the sun is up, shutting out the light, sleeping and dreaming
their horrid red dreams, leaving only their monstrous guardian creatures awake and
watchful. But even they stick to the shadows of Starside's boulder mounds and
crumbling ruins, shrinking from the sunlight as best possible. Of course they do, for they
too are the stuff of vampires.
'So then, in that same hour when the sun turns the mountain peaks to gold,
myself, Grinner, and other pack leaders had gone creeping out onto the barren boulder
plains to locate the positions of the last of our enemies. And having found them, mind to
mind with our uncle, we reported their numbers, whereabouts and fortifications to him,
fixing their coordinates in his mind. At last he could move on them. And he did!
'In his special way, transporting his teams of arsonists up close, he burned the
warrior creatures when they were only half awake, scorched the grounded flyers'
membrane wings to immobilise them, brought the rest of his army forward into the battle
area. And all done in a trice! Szgany mirror-men in the barrier mountains reflected
sunlight down into the areas where they saw flames rising; others on the ground
trapped these rays in mirrors of their own, turning them on the vampires as they rose up
from sleep. Grenades and bullets cut them down; men moved among them with
machetes and axes; even the most dire battle gauntlet was useless against scything
metal shards and silver shot! Even Nathan was surprised at how quickly the last
remaining monsters caved in.
'And for all of that long sunup the Szgany gathered up vampire debris and burned
it on the boulder plains in the ruins of the old Wamphyri stacks, and the smoke and stink
of their fires went up to the sky, so that when night came again even the ill-omened
Northstar was partly obscured. But other than the smoke and the dying fires, nothing
else moved in all Starside ...
'It was over, and not a man of the Szgany  or wolf of the brotherhood  lost or
even wounded in that final victory.
'Which makes Nathan's injury that much more poignant.
'It came during the celebrations in Settlement. The Lidescis built great bonfires in
the foothills, to signal the utter destruction of the vampires, the end of their reign of
terror. They danced, feasted, and sent off such rockets into the skies that they rivalled
the light of our mistress moon!
'But alas, such explosive devices were crude things and by no means reliable,
and one such that flew awry exploded close to Nathan. He was hurled down by the
blast; his skull struck a rock; unconscious, he was taken to Misha's makeshift dwelling.
And there he has stayed in the care of his mate...
'That was many sunups ago, even as many as the toes on two wolves, and then
some, since when there has been small improvement. After a while he walked, but it
seems that everything is an utter mystery to him. He remembers nothing, or so little it
makes no difference. And when I've looked into his head, all I have seen is emptiness.
Those baffling numbers that once were there... where are they now? And where the
uncle I loved as a cub and love as a wolf full-grown? If you can help us find him,
Grandfather, all Sunside will be for ever in your debt...'
_
_
Arriving back at Settlement, Blaze paused and composed himself, then advanced stiff-
legged in through the west gate. The Szgany who saw paid him no special heed. A
familiar of Nathan's, Blaze came and went as he saw fit. As for Settlement's tame dogs:
the look in his yellow eyes warned them off, so that he had no need for snarling...
13
SKIN GRAFT  CLAY PIGEONS AND RED HERRINGS
Misha was on her own now, and as Blaze paused, whining, at the door of her 'house'
she looked up, saw him, and welcomed him in. 'So you're back,' she said, smiling, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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