James Asher, Vampire #03 - Blood Maidens by Barbara Hambly

Author:Barbara Hambly [Hambly, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780727869470
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2011-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

‘What happened in Prague?’

‘Why is it that you assume that anything did?’ Ysidro took his accustomed seat, across from Asher, in the Royal Bavarian State Railway’s immaculate green plush first-class seats, and withdrew from a pocket his deck of cards. Saxony’s forests swallowed the lights of Dresden. The vampire’s long fingers, with their pale strong claws like lacquered ivory, shuffled and cut, shuffled and cut, like some delicate machine, while his colorless eyes held Asher’s.

‘It seems to have taken you three nights to make contact with the master there.’

‘The vampires of Prague are not like vampires elsewhere. The Master of Prague misses no fledgling, has heard naught of any who has made it a habit these three years to travel to Berlin. This means nothing,’ he added, dealing out the cards between them. ‘Fire from Heaven might rain upon Berlin and every other city in Germany, and the vampires of Prague would make little of it. They are old.’

His mind on the vampires of Prague, Asher didn’t see him move. But he seemed to jerk awake after momentary sleep to find his left hand prisoned in a cold grip like a machine. With a long nail, Ysidro moved Asher’s sleeve up to show Dr Karlebach’s silver-studded leather band. ‘That is new,’ he observed.

‘A toy. To keep me awake if I need it.’ Not that it did me any good a second ago, damn him . . .

Ysidro’s grip tightened warningly. ‘There is a shop in Prague that sells such toys?’

‘There is.’

He won’t break the bones, Asher told himself. He can’t as long as he needs me . . .

He kept his eyes on the vampire’s, and his jaw ached with the effort not to cry out in pain.

‘The vampires of Prague,’ said Ysidro, ‘sought from me assurance as to when I would kill you and your lady.’

His voice held steady with excruciating effort, Asher said, ‘How do they know about Lydia?’

‘They know of no man who can be trusted to serve, who is not threatened through the safety of his wife.’

He wanted to ask, What assurance did you give? but knew if he tried to speak he would probably scream.

Ysidro let go of his hand. There was silence for a time, save for the clacking of the train wheels, the light flutter of the cards as the vampire resumed shuffling them, and Asher’s hoarse breath. ‘I do not keep you in ignorance from malice, James,’ Ysidro said after a time, ‘but to guard you from what would be your death.’

‘Were that entirely so,’ Asher returned, a little surprised that he could speak at all, ‘you would content yourself with a verbal warning, now that we’re nowhere near Prague.’ Across the little railway table, the vampire’s face was expressionless. ‘Neither you nor I knows what’s afoot or what’s involved with this . . . this interloper in Petersburg, who might or might not be the same as the interloper in Berlin. Neither you nor I know what piece of evidence will unlock the puzzle.

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