by Brian Lumley
‘The arrows suggest movement,’ he said. ‘From “A” to “C”, or from one to three. But if you number the phases like this,’ (He scrawled with a piece of charcoal) ‘it’s at once apparent that this .. . isn’t an engine!’
And now the whole thing was simplicity itself. But to be absolutely sure, the Necroscope explained it anyway, then went on to describe the system as: ‘An unending, self-perpetuating cycle, which gives total protection to two worlds but damages and depletes neither. It’s just like the
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Mobius strip which I was shown superimposed over this diagram: a single system transcending and blending disparate dimensions, yet interfering with neither one of them. The strip was my father’s life; it became my symbol and saved my life; now it will be the salvation of a world, even a universe . ..’
Listening and looking, Trask’s jaw had fallen open as he recognized the ‘truth’ of this thing. Finally he jumped to his feet. ‘But this presupposes that we’re going to get back to our own world. We have to, in order to initiate it!’
Nathan grinned wolfishly at him, at all of them, and said, ‘Did you ever have any doubts, any of you?’
One of them had, at least. lan Goodly said, ‘It’s possible, of course, that Gustav Turchin has figured it out for himself. Which would mean our return isn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion …’
As they pondered that, Nathan said, ‘Now has to be as good a time as any. I can take a quick look at the Gate, and, if it’s safe, move you out there right now on the first leg of your trip home. Then we can be sure that this —’ he indicated the diagram - ‘will definitely happen, whether Turchin has already thought of it or not. At least one of our problems — your main problem — will have been solved.’
Zek reached out and patted his hand. ‘But yours will still remain. Haven’t you given up trying to get rid of us yet, Nathan? Don’t you know it’s not going to be that easy?’
He sighed out loud and said, ‘Very well, but from now on you’ve got to stay close together, all four of you, and at all times. From this moment on, I’ve got to be able to move all of you in one bunch, and at a moment’s notice.’
‘Agreed,’ said Trask. ‘And meanwhile?’
‘Now.’ Nathan looked at them in turn. ‘I could use a situation report.’ He patted Grinner’s head where the wolf of the wild lay close by.
I’ve lost my observers, Grinner said. The grey brothers are scattered in the mountain heights, broken up by the vampires in the foothills. But the reports of several individuals
all teJJ the same story: the flyers out of Wrathstack are coming in great waves, turning the sky black!
There can’t be that many! Nathan was perplexed.
A wolf shrug. Wolves are sometimes like men, or dogs: they like to exaggerate. They bark at shadows …
Zek had got something of this, and now said, ‘There isn’t a peep out of them. They’re not talking, and they’re shielding their minds.’
‘Radio silence!’ said Trask.
Nathan looked at him, but Trask shook his head. ‘An Earth tactic,’ he said. ‘Apparently it applies here, too.’
And frowning, Chung said, ‘There are a great many of them. But it’s a funny thing … I mean, if this Devetaki creature is mainly interested in you, Nathan, then why doesn’t she concentrate her forces on us? Why are they spreading out, evenly, like a great blanket?’
‘Are they?’ Nathan was keenly interested, anxious.
‘Yes. From the petrified lava falls beyond the great pass, their front extends many miles west of here.’
‘Like a miles-long wave rolling in on a beach,’ Zek said, half-closing her eyes and reaching out with her mind.
Nathan’s turn to frown as he added, ‘Or like a net, being draped over us …” Suddenly he was worried. ‘But what if they go right on over us, and head out into the desert, to the harbour areas and the Thyre? I’ve placed a good many hundreds of men, women and children in Thyre colonies out there, all on a line roughly east to west. Devetaki’s wave would hit them more or less simultaneously, and there’s no way I can be in four or five different places at the same time!’
It was Trask’s turn to calm him down. ‘Son, take it easy. You painted a picture a few minutes ago, and it was a true one as far as it went. There’s nothing more to be done right now. If you make a Mobius-jump out into the colonies to alert your people and the Thyre, Yefros will know of it at once. For you can’t make a move without stirring up your numbers vortex, and it gives you away every time. But if or
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when the first vampire wave passes over us, heading out across the desert, then you’ll know the worst of it and that will be your signal to take some kind of action to save your people. Until then you can’t give the show away.’
Nathan nodded. ‘And after that - if it happens - I’ll have no more than half an hour to visit all those Thyre locations and take my people out of there. Except, this time I won’t make any mistakes, but move them right away from here: east, to the very limits of the barrier mountains, and fifty miles out into the desert! Devetaki won’t be able to reach them there, not and get back to Wrathstack before the sun rises again.’
Trask nodded approvingly.
Goodly, on the other hand, merely grunted and turned his face away. Nathan looked at him until the precog felt his gaze and returned it. And:
‘Well?’ said Nathan.
‘We’ve arrived at the one conclusion we had to arrive at,’ Goodly said. ‘And as you can see, the only action we can take is what we would have taken anyway, without all the discussion! The talk is fine and let’s us all know where we stand, but the future is narrowing down on us and will be as it will be. Just don’t believe for a moment that we’re in charge, because we’re not. And don’t forget, the Big One keeps getting closer minute by minute.’
‘But you still don’t know what this Big One will be?’
Goodly shook his head. ‘Good or bad, I can’t say. I only know that it’s close, and we’re all in it together. But I have to remind you, Nathan - even though I hate to remind you -of what we saw in future-time, you and I. I mean, I’m not worried for myself, but…’
‘I know what you mean,’ Nathan stopped him. ‘I’ve already been into it with Ben here. Now, I don’t want to think about it any more until it comes.’
He threw a dead branch onto the fire, leaned back against the bole of a fallen tree and closed his eyes. ‘In fact, I just want to clear my mind of all this and see what else
comes into it. One thing I can guarantee, though: I’m not about to reach the end of my tether just yet awhile
The Necroscope wasn’t trying to sleep, wasn’t trying to do anything. He literally cleared his mind, relaxed and took a mental breather - and slept. After a few moments, when Zek said something to him in a low voice, his only reponse was when his hand slid from his chest to nestle open-fisted in the grass by his side. A glance into his mind disclosed the ‘white noise’ of human sleep prior to the dream-state and a dispersing, collapsing whirl of numbers as mental exhaustion returned him to the basic state of mind.
Mentally, even possessing his metaphysical mind, the Necroscope was little more than a mote now, drifting wherever the eddies of dreams and fancies might take him.
Trask draped a blanket over Nathan’s shoulders, looked at the others and shrugged. ‘I feel weary, too. Tension, and anxiety, I suppose. Let alone all the physical stuff that he’s been going through. God only knows what his talent is taking out of him! We can let him be for an hour or so, recharge his batteries, so to speak - but let’s all of us stay on the alert. And as soon as we have something, we wake him up.’
Grinner seemed to understand. He got up, loped to the rim of the clearing and began circling, sniffing the air, ‘listening’ not only with keen, mobile wolf ears, but with who could tell how many other wolf senses, all tuned for danger. Zek and Chung likewise began pacing back and forth, their wild tale
nts reaching out into the north, to discover whatever they might.
And lan Goodly sat by the fire not far from Nathan, glancing at the sleeping Necroscope now and then, and perhaps trying to catch the occasional glimpse … of other things.
Eygor Killglance wasted no time; his previously developed rapport with Nathan took him direct to his target’s mind,
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and the monster’s panic and confusion told of the state he was in, in his Madmanse pit in Turgosheim.
Necroscope, what terrible thing is this you’ve wrought? What have you done to me? Eygor’s deadspeak voice was as evil as ever, like the methane-belching slurp and gurgle of a quagmire, but his anxiety was very real.
Nathan knew him at once, of course, and despite sensing Eygor’s genuine but as yet unexplained alarm, returned: Oh? And is this a new approach, Eygor? Are you claiming to be the victim of some act of mine?
What — did — you — tell - Maglore.’? the other hissed. Which had the effect of jogging Nathan’s memory, and bringing alive the screen of his mind until Eygor saw its pictures. So! (His voice was black as pitch.) And now all is explained.
Then explain it to me. Nathan gave a mental shrug.
You threatened him with me. Do you deny it?
No, it was a word game. He taunted me and 1 returned fire. He made threats, and I —
— Threatened him with me, aye/ Eygor finished it for him. Except it was more than a word game to him. Maglore knows your powers, Necroscope, and those he doesn’t know he suspects. You hinted that he wasn’t yet safe from a dead old thing in a pit, that in certain circumstances - under the right conditions - a ghost may be more than a mere ghost. To you this was a word game, a careless jest or taunt, as it would be to many a Lord of the Wamphyri. But to Maglore?
Nathan knew what he meant: that Maglore of Runemanse was a seer, a supernaturalist even beyond the scope of Wamphyri knowledge and talents; a believer in omens, signs and sigils, dooms and damnations. Of course he was, else Nathan’s threat had carried no weight! But how much weight hod it carried?
His thoughts were deadspeak, and Eygor was in tune with them. Oh, I con tell you that, all right, the monster said. A lot of weight! A world of weight/ The weight of all the rubble and boulders that choke the throat of my pit! For
even now he digs his way down to me/ He comes to discover and disassemble me in this stifling, stagnant, nitrous place. To break me up, burn what will burn, and scatter the rest to the four corners of Turgosheim! Because he fears old Eygor as never before with a fear that you gave him, Necroscope/ It’s all your doing, your fault/ And only you can put it right; only you can … call me up? (The last a whisper, even a prayer?)
Not good enough, said Nathan, while in his secret mind he turned it over. He had never once deliberately called up a dead creature - though past events and now his ‘intuition’ told him that indeed he had the power. Yet on two occasions the dead had returned of their own volition, to come to his aid in desperate circumstances. And when he was safe they’d gone down again, ‘of their own free will’. So, apparently, the talent worked independent of Nathan himself: it was that the Great Majority’s love of his father had transferred to him because, like Harry before him, he was the single light in their eternal darkness. Eygor Killglance on the other hand couldn’t come up, because even if Nathan were threatened there wasn’t enough love in the vampire — indeed not any - to motivate and mobilize him! He must therefore be brought up by the incredible regenerative power of the Necroscope.
And (it now occurred to Nathan) why not? Why not fight fire with fire? Hadn’t he been the one to stop Trask shooting at the flyer, rider and gas-beast bomb out of Wrathstack, because he liked the idea of vampires destroying each other? Wouldn’t this be the same? And didn’t Maglore deserve all of it and more, for what he’d done to Karz and Orlea and hundreds of others; not to mention what he would do to Nathan if ever he had the chance?
Nathan’s mind-shield slipped a little as he became engrossed with the idea; Eygor read him, and urged, fust think: what better way to stop the old bastard raiding on Turgosheim’s Sunside? Give him something better - or worse — to think about, eh? At the moment the Seer-Lord is
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glutted, and all his creatures, too, but sooner or later he’ll need to reinforce Turgosheim blood with fresh stuff out of Sunside. Do you really want to wait that long?
How long? Nathan wanted to know.
When he’s finished with me, I should think! Right now I’m the one thing that stands between Maglore and an easy mind and peaceful dreams! Except … there is one other he’ll be needing to deal with soon enough.
Oh?
I sense it, said Eygor. My own flesh and blood, returning out of the west. One of my bloodsons - Spiro!
Out on the boulder plains the teeming dead were listening to their conversation. Now Jason Lidesci said: It could be that he’s telling the truth, Necroscope. Wrathstack has all but fallen, but Spiro is not among the dead. The other brother, Wran, is dead, and raging still! But not Spiro.
He has fled the fray, Eygor insisted. He’s on his way back to Turgosheim even now!
If it’s true, Jason continued, then you have real trouble on your hands — for Spiro has inherited his father’s evil eye! The victims of that eye lie scattered around the foot of Wrathstack …
Vampire victims, Nathan said. I feel nothing for them.
No, but you do feel for the Szgany of Turgosheim’s Sun-side, Eygor reminded him. So how’s it to be, Necroscope? Will you not call me up to put paid to both Maglore and Spiro? And remember, you don’t come out of this empty-handed. We’ll strike a bargain: not an eye for an eye, but an eye for a moment of life, or however long it takes me.
Nathan was tempted. There was nothing of a healthy nature in Turgosheim for Eygor to corrupt; he felt sure that the Thing in its Madmanse pit could handle both Spiro Killglance and Maglore the Mage; if only he could be sure that once Eygor was up, he could be put down again as easily…
But you have the power! Eygor was persuasive. And, anyway, what is there for an old dead thing in his pit in the
world of the Jiving? Nothing but revenge on Maglore, who dares to covet Madmanse, and my bastard bloodson Spiro, who blinded and murdered me! As for Wran .. . he’s dead, you say? Good! But I wish that I had got to him first!
Nathan was half-convinced. Eygor’s killing eye would make a powerful addition to his arsenal of metaphysical weapons. If I make a deal with you .. . how will you give me your eye?
Only let me into your mind, and it shall be done!
Except Nathan knew that upon a time his father had made a similar mistake. Again Eygor read him, and said: But how may I possibly harm you? I’m dead in Turgosheim and you are alive in the west!
Give me your eye now, Nathan answered, and if or when Maglore reaches you in your pit, or Spiro makes it back across the Great Red Waste, then I’ll call you up.
What?! (Eygor was outraged.) What is that for a bargain?
The only one you’ll get from me, the Necroscope answered.
For long moments Eygor was sullenly silent; he was over a barrel, and knew it. But eventually: So be it, he said, however grudgingly. Sleep on, Nathan, but leave your mind open to me so that I may invest it with mine.
Nathan did as instructed, and knew evil dreams a while …
Then:
Done! said Eygor.
Suddenly Nathan’s brain seethed; there was an unholy power in him; he felt it there, like a cancer in his mind, eating away at the good in him. Eygor had put something into him: the power of his evil eye, of course. And Nathan knew that the monster in his pit had hoped it would make him as evil as Eygor himself.
Given time, perhaps it would!
With a cry of alarm, Nathan sprang awake …
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V
Shaking the Web - Siege on Settlement
Ben Trask had been about to wake the Necroscope. Leaning over
Nathan, touching his arm, Trask felt the brief vibration that shook him - then heard his cry of alarm as he snatched himself sideways away from Trask! Then . .. his eyes opening wide, wider … as something monstrous stirred behind them, something awful and awesome about them in the shifting firelight! Trask jerked upright and made an inarticulate, questioning sound in the back of his throat. He went to step back a pace - and found himself lifted bodily from his feet and hurled back! His heart felt as if someone had jabbed it with a live electrode!
Zek and lan Goodly had seen something of it; they made to go to Trask, but Nathan was there first. His eyes were normal now. ‘Ben! Are you all right?’
Trask got up slowly, staggered, looked at the Necroscope curiously, cautiously, and gasped, ‘Jesus Christ! How the . ..? What in the name of …? Something hit me!’
Nathan said nothing but he knew. Knew, too, that from now on people must tread warily about him, try not to take him by surprise - and never shock him! Zek read something of it in his mind and said, ‘Ben, this is all part of it. ..’
‘Part of the Big One.’ Goodly came to her help. ‘An important part.’
Chung had arrived from the perimeter; Grinner loped at his heels. ‘Something’s coming right now,’ the locator said. ‘Nothing big, but nasty as all hell!’ Whatever had happened was put aside for now, as in the next moment:
Bats - huge Desmodus bats with wingspans a yard across
- swerving and dancing overhead. There were four of them, advance reconnaissance, probably recruited in Wrathstack. Trask’s machine-pistol made its distinctive ch-ching sound as he cocked it, but Nathan was wide awake now and stopped him. ‘Save your ammunition. They’re more or less harmless. You can’t get them all, and in any case their failure to report back would tell Devetaki just as much.’
